Results 24,841-24,860 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Programmes (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Child poverty and child homelessness are completely unacceptable. We have 190,000 children at risk of poverty in this country. One of the most damning facts is that child homelessness has gone through the roof and we now have 4,105 children and 2,000 families living in emergency accommodation. Child homelessness has gone up from October 2021, when there were 2,300 children in emergency...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 10. To ask the Taoiseach the expected timeline for the citizens' assemblies committed to in the programme for Government. [4019/24]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I had a very interesting encounter with the Irish Second-Level Students Union yesterday. I spent the afternoon discussing with students from secondary schools up and down the country the issues they are concerned about. It highlighted for me the urgency of radical reform of our secondary school system and a few points should be borne in mind in that regard. One of the things they said was...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 16. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [2807/24]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I welcome what the Taoiseach outlined. Following on from that, what some of the second level students said is that sometimes, teachers handpicked people to talk to inspectors but there was not engagement with the mass of students and there should be a bit more engagement on the ground. The other point they raised related to facilities in a lot of schools, which vary widely from...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I just think we should listen when school students speak because they were passionate about education but they just felt the current system was not fit for purpose.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We need to listen to the school students about what they think is necessary to make it work for them.

Reform of the Television Licence Fee Model: Motion [Private Members] (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It would be grossly unfair, but it is looking like it may well be the case, that the public and workers who did absolutely nothing wrong will pick up the tab for the scandals that emerged in RTÉ. 8 o’clock They will be collateral damage for the lack of governance and the bad behaviour of some people. That appear to be a likely outcome for hundreds of jobs, not those of the...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Middle East (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 135. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he is aware of reports a Palestinian-Canadian journalist (details supplied) has been abducted by Israeli authorities in Gaza; if he is aware of reports that journalists are being targeted by Israeli authorities in Gaza; if he has raised the issue with the Government of Israel; if he has raised the issue with the Government of Canada;...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: International Protection (13 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 470. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the process by which a person who is not currently in Ireland and is in need of international protection would apply for asylum in Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6521/24]

Business Costs for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises: Motion [Private Members] (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward the motion to discuss SMEs and the supports they need. The first thing I want to do is to advocate on behalf of the 26,000 small enterprises who are the taxi drivers of this country. They are very concerned, at the moment, about moves to deregulate the taxi industry that are being spearheaded by some other SMEs that - do not get me wrong -...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 1. To ask the Taoiseach to report on the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. [2797/24]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have a fundamental problem with the World Economic Forum as a gathering where the world's most profitable and richest companies and billionaires rub shoulders with politicians from around the world, primarily to pursue their own interests rather than the wider interests of society. One thing of interest I notice was that Hines, the wealth and asset management company and owner of a very...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 15. To ask the Taoiseach to report on his meeting with the President of China. [6660/24]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Chinese regime is a brutal, totalitarian regime. It has engaged in across-the-board suppression of any dissent and wholesale persecution of certain groups. The Uyghurs were mentioned. In fact, it has been suggested that the Uyghurs are victims of a possible genocide and certainly victims of a really brutal suppression of an entire national and ethnic group. Did the Taoiseach raise...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 16. To ask the Taoiseach to report on his visit to the western Balkans. [2796/24]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The countries the Taoiseach visited are very much on the front line of what I will call the escalating new Cold War tensions between the expanded NATO and Putin and his bloc, as it were. It is worth noting that the Balkans is the crossroads of competing empires. Because of that, it was the place where the First World War began, and historically it has been so. These empires are banging up...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am saying it is not a good thing.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It did not force them.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Television Licence Fee (15 Feb 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The need for radical reform in RTÉ is obvious from the €450,000 paid to the former financial officer. It is shocking on top of all the revelations about obscene salaries. We need to get to the root of why this stuff happened. Part of the reason was that RTÉ moved away from a public service remit and became too embroiled in advertising and commercial considerations. Then...