Results 9,081-9,100 of 26,902 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) (Amendment) Bill 2015: Second Stage (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not think I will use the 20 minutes provided.

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) (Amendment) Bill 2015: Second Stage (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Bill may well merit a 20-minute contribution, but one has to cover many bases when one is a member of a small party. I have not had enough time to examine this legislation, but I am pretty concerned about it. I can see the case for having a postcode system that is uniform and allows people in business, or others who for any reason need to communicate with people or get to places, to...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Waste Management (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 34. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a detailed progress report on the planned Waste to Energy Facility in Ringsend including the cost of the project, the capacity of the incinerator and the amount of waste currently being produced here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22334/15]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Irish Fiscal Advisory Council for its latest report and for its work on the anatomy of the economy. To cut a long story short, my interpretation of what the IFAC is saying is that the Government has been playing by the rules to date but all of a sudden it has stopped playing by the rules and the figures for its projections beyond 2015 do not add up. Is that what the IFAC is saying?...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is there any sanction for that? What can happen now in that regard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does Professor McHale say it is beyond doubt or close to being beyond doubt that the Government's figures do not add up and that in reality the figures will end up outside the targets post the election?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am very much for sustainable growth. I strongly fear that what we are looking at is a pre-election giveaway without much concern for the rules that previously were apparently sacrosanct for this Government and were the justification for just about every nastiness they inflicted on us. Having said that I want to ask questions about the metrics and measures that the IFAC is using. Are we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Shifting the goalposts from the Government's point of view is fairly evident to people, but worth underlining as we enter into the election. There is a more serious argument for saying that we do not have to overshoot the targets. In fact, I was at a presentation given by Michael Taft earlier on an alternative fiscal framework for a progressive alternative economic policy. He said there is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thought they knew nothing about what was going on in Irish Water.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have two quick questions. Many people would say that cheap money from Europe contributed significantly to the reckless lending and over-lending into particular sectors that helped to crash our economy. The low interest rates that were favoured to try to move along the economy of central Europe - the core of Europe - were completely unsuitable for us. Are we seeing the same pattern...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would like to make a second and final point. We want to protect against a cycle of boom and bust. I agree with Dr. O'Sullivan's point that part of that is about having sustainable revenue streams. I would not be quite as harsh on the fiscal council as Deputy Paul Murphy has been. I have got to know its members better - that is why.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I put it to the witnesses that the problem is that it is very difficult to say what is sustainable and what will not be affected by all sorts of external and cyclical factors, many of which are out of our control. Housing, which is a particular bugbear of mine, is an example of that. Obviously, property tax is a revenue source based on property. We are now seeing how volatile property is....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is of immediate consequence in the case of housing.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 4. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet sub-Committee on Construction 2020, housing, planning and mortgage arrears last met. [20232/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The reason we are asking the Taoiseach about the frequency of the meetings of the Cabinet sub-committee on housing and mortgage arrears is because this is the most serious crisis facing our citizens and the entire economy. However, there seems to be no sense of urgency from the top of Government as to how bad the situation is. It is no exaggeration to say we are at the edge of and heading...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is 8,000 per year.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not know where to start given the mess we are in. Unless we grasp how bad the situation is, we cannot even judge the legislation in any meaningful way. We must grasp the scale of the problem we face and the absolute certainty that if things remain the same, the situation will be much worse next year and in the coming years. Nothing in the legislation or in what the Government has...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The third one is coming soon.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Bodies (16 Jun 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 869. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he is aware that the contract of the chief executive officer of Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company (details supplied) is renewed on a yearly basis; if he will confirm that neither he, his Department nor the Harbour Company have adhered to a document salary range for newly appointed chief executive officers of commercial...