Results 8,781-8,800 of 26,901 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland: Allied Irish Banks (22 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have only just started. I am not asking Mr. Duffy about his personal relationship with the Minister but about his working relationship in terms of what directions the Minister gives him. The Government says it wants relief for variable interest rate mortgage holders and fairness for people in mortgage arrears but when we complain about the banks not offering such support, the Minister...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 3. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reason he considered it appropriate to allocate a target for social housing provision in all four Dublin local authorities that is below the national average target of 25% - 20% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, 21% in Dublin City Council, 23% in Fingal County Council and 23% in South Dublin County Council - considering...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Figures were released earlier this week showing that there has been a disastrous 55% increase in the number of homeless families and children in the past year. Most of those are in Dublin - 911 children, or 411 families - on top of an already disastrous homelessness crisis in Dublin for individuals, families and young people. How can the Minister say he is taking serious action to deal with...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: For the third time since I entered the Dáil in 2011, I have brought families, which directly affected, into the Visitors Gallery. They are either now homeless, threatened with homelessness or have been on the housing waiting list for ten, 12 or 13 years. Many of them now sitting in the Visitors Gallery are in absolutely dire circumstances. The figures released today by the Dublin...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In these announcements, the Minister promised a national average 25% reduction in the housing list but it is not even being met in Dublin. The allocation is lower in Dublin where the housing crisis is at its worst. How can the Minister explain this?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In recent months, the grim facts of a dramatic increase in families, including children, being driven into homelessness, speak for themselves. I will give an example concerning targets in my own area. In a letter sent to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the Minister mentions a target of 681 new houses. When one breaks it down, however, there are only 300 new houses, or less....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is it existing money?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 5. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the research he has carried out regarding the viability of rolling out the housing assistance payment scheme to 75,000 families and persons by 2020, in view of the already considerable difficulty in getting landlord agreement for the existing rent allowance scheme; his plans to deal with the local authorities' duty of care...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Notwithstanding the bogus propaganda that €3.8 billion has been allocated for the provision of 110,000 social housing units, the reality is that €2.3 billion of that relates to the existing rent allowance budget of the Department of Social Protection. That is a fact, as verified by the Department in the reply to a parliamentary question I submitted earlier this week. Two...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Hundreds of families are being evicted on a monthly basis by landlords who are running away from rent allowance arrangements with local authorities. At any point in time across the Dublin local authority areas, dozens of RAS landlords are evicting tenants. How can the Minister of State expect us to accept that all these people will be brought into the HAP scheme? That is not going to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I work every day with a local authority that is firefighting in the face of this disastrous situation. The worst-case scenario is being experienced by the people in the Gallery, who represent only the tip of the iceberg that is the disaster unfolding in Dublin and other urban centres. I want to work with the Minister of State to find solutions, but we must be honest here. The numbers he...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How can the Minister seriously base the future housing strategy on the disastrous crisis we are facing in the hope that he will get tens of thousands of private landlords to sign up for these schemes when they are walking away from rent allowance or arrangements with local authorities?

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 25. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government with regards to his recent announcement of social housing targets to 2017, the way the numbers of units allocated to each authority will be delivered, whether by direct build, acquisition, leasing, approved housing bodies, rental accommodation schemes and the housing assistance payment.; and if he will make a statement on...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Irish Water Administration (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 32. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a full report on whether the decision to hand over personal details of council tenants to Irish Water, and the subsequent decision to legislate for An Post to hand over names and addresses to Irish Water, is in compliance with data protection legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter....

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Mortgage to Rent Scheme Administration (23 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 39. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide details of the roll-out of the mortgage to local authority renting scheme and the apparent difficulties with this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15783/15]

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They get well paid for it.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn.

Spring Economic Statement (28 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for pointing out the Government's quite deliberate and studied contempt for the Technical Group but I take heart from the fact that the senior Ministers felt the need to walk out of the Chamber. It brought to mind the motto of a great American journalist of Irish descent, Finlay Peter Dunne, also known as Mr. Dooley, and about whom James Joyce wrote poems, who...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Hydraulic Fracturing (28 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 27. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason the contract for a study on hydraulic fracturing commissioned by his Department was awarded to a consortium led by a company (details supplied), in view of the fact the company sponsored the Shale Gas World Europe Conference in 2013, held in Warsaw; and if he will make a statement on the matter....

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Energy Policy (28 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 34. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he or his Department have carried out any research into the cost-benefit analysis of using waste-to-energy facilities as part of our future energy strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16281/15]