Results 621-640 of 5,216 for speaker:Mick Barry

Motor Insurance Costs: Motion (16 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: I welcome the opportunity to speak tonight on the issue of car insurance and the reports that are before the House. I will start with the committee report. It states that "[t]he single most important issue identified during [our] hearings was the lack of transparency and shortfall in data-sharing in the insurance sector". I am in favour of shedding light on the activities of a secret...

Public Services and Procurement (Social Value) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (21 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: For us procurement represents privatisation through the back door. Services that could be and should be delivered with direct labour employed by public bodies with trade union rates of pay and conditions are being shifted via procurement in many cases to precarious private sector employment. Ireland is a leading country in PPPs and outsourcing. The most definitive report on this was Public...

Public Services and Procurement (Social Value) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (21 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: They are in the sense that there are sins of commission and sins of omission. There are some sins of omission of a rather serious, perhaps mortal, character in the Fianna Fáil Bill and that is what I am focusing on.

Public Services and Procurement (Social Value) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (21 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: The proposed legislation attempts to weaken the very narrow conditions in procurement legislation, which emphasise low-cost and low-price tenders. The Bill is very weak and vague and does not explicitly protect workers’ rights, as shown by the examples I will give now with regard to the comments of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. What it said about tax compliance was there were...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (21 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: 49. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if his Department will consider the institution of a unified State-wide defined benefit occupational pension scheme as a means of addressing the diminution on defined benefit schemes by employers. [8455/17]

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (21 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: 67. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his views on the decline of occupational defined benefit occupation schemes over the past thirty years. [8456/17]

Industrial Relations (Right to Access) (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: We will be voting in favour this Bill on Second Stage. We believe it can improve the ability of unions to more fully function in workplaces where they have a membership base. We believe it can be a useful tool against union busting. When we think of union busting, we think of the United States of America where it is a multi-billion dollar industry. We think of companies such as Walmart,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: A private operator was quoted in a national newspaper a couple of weeks indicating that he got 70%. Bus Éireann gets 40%. To clarify, is Mr. Duggan saying that there are circumstances where private operators would get a greater percentage back on free travel passes than Bus Éireann? Is that possible?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: Mr. Duggan is saying there might have been a historical reason a Minister or a Department said, at a certain stage, there was a need for a boost for private operators and to cut them a better deal in reality than the deal that was cut for Bus Éireann. He is saying that deal is basically still in place. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: I hear what Mr. Duggan is saying, that essentially they are not directly comparable but that, all things being equal, it is not a level playing pitch. There is a better deal there for the private operators. Mr. Duggan would not disagree with that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: That is quite interesting. I have a question for Ms Graham. It is about the public service obligation, PSO, contract that was originally drawn up for the private company, M&A Coaches. It had the Portlaoise to Cashel replacement routes. Did the original contract have an arrangement whereby old age pensioners, OAPs, who travelled with M&A Coaches would have to pay-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: Did the original contract for the private company which had the replacement run from Portlaoise to Cashel involve a concessionary 50% payment for OAPs?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: The CEO of Bus Éireann, Mr. Hernan, stated yesterday that Bus Éireann faces potential insolvency by May. How does Ms Graham feel about that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: If Bus Éireann was to become insolvent, what kind of cost would we be looking at? I understand the Bus Éireann workforce of 2,600 workers pays a little less than €60 million a year to the State in payroll taxes. There would be cost from redundancy pay and social welfare payments. What is Ms Graham's ballpark figure for the cost in that circumstance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: I reckon the cost would be measured in the hundreds of millions of euro. The unions involved in this dispute have pinpointed a potential €9 million to €10 million that could be used to address the crisis and avert the strike. There are two measures, one from the Department and one from the National Transport Authority, NTA. The first measure is that Bus Éireann would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: Could it be covered in the PSO?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: The second question, about the free travel pass, is for Mr. Duggan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: The idea that the company could face insolvency, which has been put more firmly on the agenda since yesterday with the tighter timescale announced by Mr. Hernan, which would cost the State hundreds of millions of euro for the sake of an injection of less than €10 million, which could be done by some relatively simple measures, adds a real sense of urgency to the negotiations between...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Waiting Lists (23 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: 9. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on whether the reduction in numbers on the housing list in Cork following the recent social housing needs assessment reflects the provision of permanent secure council housing to large numbers of households on the list; if not, the other factors that account for the reduction; and if he will make a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Private Rented Accommodation Price Controls (23 Feb 2017)

Mick Barry: 37. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to enforce the 4% annual rent increase limits in rent pressure zones; his views on reports of an increase in termination notices and their potential use by landlords to illegally circumvent rent increase limits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9035/17]