Results 6,001-6,020 of 26,843 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I want to take up where Deputy Doherty left off. I do not quite understand this business that we cannot ask certain questions. I am looking at the agenda-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Deputy can ask all the questions he likes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will. The Minister is very entertaining and I enjoy these encounters.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: He is a master at this. The Minister will attend two meetings for which we have the agenda and it seems entirely legitimate to ask questions about both meetings in advance of them. The idea that there is some kind of iron wall between the Thursday and the Friday meetings does not make sense to me. On Thursday, at 10.30 a.m. there will be a macro-economic dialogue at political level. That...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I remind the Minister that time is short and he is giving an interesting account but I am asking him a specific question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Minister be at the Eurogroup meeting?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: With all due respect, Chairman-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: With all due respect I do not give a hoot about their protocols if they are trying to close off discussions-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister is telling us that issues of vital interest to this country cannot be raised at a two-day series of meetings on what is happening in the European economy. I do not accept that. It seems we have to be such good boys and girls that we cannot breach protocol and we cannot raise issues of vital interest to us. I specifically asked the Minister why, in the context-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----of a discussion on banking union can he not raise the issue of retrospective recapitalisation of Irish banks, another word for a bit of debt write-down. Why can he not do so?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It seems we are such good boys that we cannot raise the issues that matter to us. We are allowed ask the Minister about the discussions at the Eurogroup meeting where he will give the reports. He indicated that the different countries will give their reports. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister said that at the Eurogroup meeting different countries will report on what is happening in each country and there will be brief discussions. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister has made his position clear.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Deputy Doherty has made the point that we were told the same at our meeting with the troika, that it was very unlikely we would get it. That is what we were told. To my mind, that is a very big problem for us. With the mountain of debt we have, the so-called exit from the bailout is a mirage. I ask the Minister for clarification. I ask if I am correct in assuming that under the fiscal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On which prediction have I been proved wrong?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Excuse me, Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That was not a prediction. I advocated that we default. By the way, I still advocate that we default on debts that are not ours because the Minister will not even ask these people for the reduction. It is entirely legitimate when the Minister is going to a meeting with European finance Ministers for us to ask if he is going to raise the issue of the debt burden around our neck and ask for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I disagree. He has said it is not allowed, that it is not on the agenda, therefore, we cannot raise it. In my view it is entirely legitimate, in the context of our exit from the bailout, which the Minister is trumpeting, to ask him to clarify what obligations we will be under from EU treaties and EU rules, when we exit the bailout.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Discussion with Minister for Finance (13 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I ask the Minister to clarify it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Middle East Issues (19 Nov 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 85. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the pressure his Department is putting on the Israeli Government, through the Irish embassy in Tel Aviv or other channels, to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza; if he will provide details of his Department's most recent correspondence with the Israeli Government; and if he will make a statement on the...