Results 13,941-13,960 of 26,924 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: On arms spending, what commitment are we signing up to in the PESCO arrangement, not the treaty?
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: That does not explain anything.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: It does not.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister of State is really not answering the questions. He answers different questions from the ones we asked.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: No, the Minister of State is just not answering the questions. We have asked four times if we could join PESCO afterwards and he has refused to acknowledge that we could. Failing to answer that simple question is close to misleading the Dáil and the public. I ask the Minister of State another simple question. When did the Government approve this PESCO document and decide that we...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: It is just-----
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Absolutely. However, the Minister of State is not admitting that we could just apply in January, February or March. He knows that it is a formality and that we would be accepted. There is absolutely no question of that. We would just apply and be accepted.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Nothing is prohibiting us from applying and being accepted next year. It was agreed on 21 November that we would join PESCO. There were two, possibly three, meetings of the Business Committee at which we discussed arrangements for the Dáil schedule. At no point in any of those meetings did the Government signal that there would be a vote on this matter. That was only indicated on...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Why did the Government not tell us?
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I was not referring to the Minister of State personally. I am very suspicious of his Government.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: It is a matter for the Government representative.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: How would the Business Committee know if the Government is going to bring something forward?
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: The fact that we were going to have a vote this Thursday was not on the Order Paper.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: It was the Government which was pushing for a vote.
- Leaders' Questions (7 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: This is the week in which President Donald Trump has declared war on the people of Palestine and the wider Arab and Muslim world by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, an act which threatens to enflame conflict across the Middle East. Against that background of warmongering and increased militarism on the part of President Trump, it is more important than ever that Ireland holds...
- Leaders' Questions (7 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: That is the most cynical rubbish I have ever heard. I appeal to the public and press to simply read the document, Notification on Permanent Structured Cooperation. It refers to 20 binding commitments and there is no ambiguity about the language. One of these includes a "commitment to agree on common technical and operational standards of forces acknowledging that they need to ensure...
- Leaders' Questions (7 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: That is the same NATO that involves Donald Trump and the United States.
- Leaders' Questions (7 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: It is what we are talking about. We are committing to the integration of Irish Defence Forces with NATO. We still have not got answers on the fact that it commits us to real increases in defence budgets, or a "successive medium-term increase in defence investment" and "increasing the share of expenditure allocated to defence research and technology". That will be reviewed on an annual...
- Leaders' Questions (7 Dec 2017)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Give us the advice then.