Results 25,641-25,660 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett
- Mortgage Interest Rates Cap Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (20 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank those who contributed to the discussion. While the new deputy leader of Fianna Fáil was terribly polite in his response, the net interpretation of what he said is really that the Government is not going to do anything and will let the free market decide. Lola, who I mentioned earlier on, is paying €900 a month, or €10,000 or €11,000 a year, more than she...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank IFAC for all its work and I thank the witnesses for the presentation. If I understand correctly what they are saying, their advice is that the Government should not generally go beyond the 5% rule - the rule that is not a rule- and if it does, it needs to pay for that with additional taxation. I think that is essentially what they are saying. They seem to lean towards the most...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am just reading it.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: My view is that we have to raise additional revenue. Workers deserve a break – for example, with the universal social charge – and loading taxes on people who are being hammered in one way or another by a cost-of-living crisis is not appropriate. The crisis has been alleviated a little but, as Professor McMahon pointed out, inflation is still way ahead of what it was before it...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Professor McMahon will be familiar with my party’s view. It is actually the most prudential party in the whole Oireachtas because it would pay for things by taxing profits and wealth, which has shot up. It is worth saying something not often said in these discussions, namely that corporate profitability has gone through the roof. Is that not an accurate statement? Net household...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I do understand that. I have two points. It is worth saying, although it is never referred to, that corporate profits are absolutely stratospheric at the moment. They are heavily concentrated, for sure, but I do not see pharmaceutical companies going anywhere. A huge amount of the wealth is concentrated in pharmaceuticals. From information gleaned from those who have started to examine...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Fair enough.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I believed he knew everything-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Can I come in again here?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am sorry for side-tracking things into a discussion about construction. It was only because the witnesses had quite a lot about construction workers in that section they talked about. They did hint at policy in terms of that because the council, rightly, recognises the capacity constraints that are a serious problem for us. Professor McMahon more than hinted at it when referring to the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: How many?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Was that through PPPs?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Was that done through the PPP bundle?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank our witnesses for a very interesting discussion. My starting point is to be deeply sceptical of PPPs. The comparison I would like to see, although I do not think it is on the agenda, but the witnesses can tell me if there has been any discussion about it, is, as well as comparing direct procurement, which, as the witnesses pointed out earlier, is paying a contractor to do something...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Of a State construction company?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: It is a long time, if ever, since local authorities built houses.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am for that. Do not get me wrong.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Richard Boyd Barrett: What I am saying is it is a long time since we had it.