Results 4,141-4,160 of 26,843 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Also, information on deportations and the rules and regulations surrounding them, and complaints that might be made by deportees about the process, is not being made available.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Mr. Bukha has made a very clear point on the deaths of refugees and that there is no comprehensive catalogue of the circumstances of their death. Is it Mr. Bukha's belief that if there was full transparency surrounding the circumstances of the people who died, and the number who have died in the centres, it would reveal a high level of suicide or premature deaths?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Will Mr. Bukha elaborate on the point he made about the way the Geneva Convention is invoked and whether people are stopped as they try to enter this country? What is the exact point he wants clarified?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Could the Minister repeat those figures?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: To cut a long story short, what the Minister is telling us is that the State is too broke to give disabled people their legal rights and entitlements. That is appalling. The Ombudsman is just doing her job, and she expressed indignation to this committee that the laws which are supposed to apply to everybody are not being implemented by the State.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: She is expressing the view - it is right to hold the view - that the law is the law and the State should uphold the law. I do not see how the Department can evade that responsibility. Given that the Minister of State said she would take a serious look at the scheme, can we take it she has not done that since the matter was brought to her attention in 2009? That would appear to be the case...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I will give suggestions in a minute.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: There is one option the Minister of State is not considering, namely, to review the budgets. What she is saying is that the allowances have to be reduced to such an extent that they are meaningless or make other savage and unpalatable cuts elsewhere in the health service or some combination of both. What the Minister of State is not considering, or it is simply not on the agenda for...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Governments have options. When it comes to the rights of disabled people, the Government does have options. For example, it can raise taxes. There are other options but the Minister of State appears to consider only the unpalatable ones from the point of view of either the health services or people who are legally entitled to these allowances. Is it fair to say that is the case?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: But-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: If there was an easy solution I would be for putting it forward. I will think about it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: If there was a cost-neutral way of dealing with it-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I have to be honest. I commend the Government on the establishment of this committee because it is a positive development and it is a good day for democracy that an issue such as this can be brought forward. However, there are consequences to such things, and this is one of them. As much as I want to be sympathetic to the plight, is it not the case that what the Minister of State is...
- Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: What we can say with certainly is that it is profit before people all the way with this Government.
- Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Last night and again this morning in the way the business of this House has been ordered the Minister has shown utter contempt for the democracy of this country and for its citizens.
- Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Incredibly last night a Bill of enormous proportions and significance for this country, which will echo for decades in the lives of the citizens of this country, was voted through when most Deputies had not even read the Bill. Is that not a shameful disregard of our democracy?
- Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: There are school students in the Gallery today. Would Deputy Quinn, as Minister for Education and Skills, advise them to do their exams without having read the textbooks? I bet him he would not-----
- Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: -----but yet we voted through a Bill----
- Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: -----that is maybe the most important Bill any of us will ever vote on in our lifetimes and we were not even given a chance to read it.
- Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Again this morning, we did not know what the Order of Business was, we did not know if there were going to be Leaders' Question and I have just got a text on my phone stating that RTE is reporting that a deal has been done and there is no provision for debate on that matter in the Houses of the Oireachtas. That is shameful.