Results 14,661-14,680 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does Mr. Coffey think there has been a worrying preponderance of special purpose vehicles? I think we have one of the highest number of registered SPVs in Europe. These are, in many cases, companies that just appear and then disappear and do not really leave much behind. In the film industry, for example, companies appear and then disappear but they get a lot of tax relief. There are other...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Mr. Coffey must get out his crystal ball now.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I can. Dr. Coffey mentioned housing as a difficulty. Does he agree that precarious employment is another difficulty? I ask that because there was a time-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----when there was much competition for jobs. We are now suffering major labour shortages. That is why I mentioned the film industry. At the moment, because of the special purpose vehicle, SPV, structure, employment in that sector is completely precarious. People now have choices, however. They can leave the country or they can work in another sector. There is a danger that capacity...

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 11. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is considering measures to deal with companies that are found to have been negligent, fraudulent or substandard in the work on public contracts; and if he will preclude the companies from bidding for public contracts in the future. [21724/18]

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am asking whether the Minister of State will consider bringing in more serious penalties and excluding contractors who do work paid for out of the public purse through public procurement or contracts where those companies are found to have been substandard, negligent in their work or engaged in fraudulent behaviour. I am thinking of issues like schools that were built in a substandard...

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I ask whether companies found to be guilty of those sort of failings should be excluded from further public contracts.

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That looks good on paper, but is it happening? For example, I remind the Minister of State about Western Building Systems and the company that built 31 schools. A report into fire safety issues resulting from substandard building in an audit of five schools initially, which we were supposed to have had by now, revealed they were found to be fire safety defective. A report was to be...

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is extraordinary that such companies are still being awarded public contracts. All firms that were found to have been involved in bogus self-employment arrangements, such as the JJ Rhatigan dispute----

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not think this is happening and that there is proper enforcement of this. The Office of Government Procurement and the Minister of State should be putting pressure on the relevant Departments to ensure this happens. I mention Western Building Systems, which built a school in Whitehall that I understand has been sitting empty for perhaps a decade because it is structurally unsound. We...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 30. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if, in the context of the increasing difficulty on recruiting and retaining employees in key areas of the public service, he will eliminate the pay inequality faced by new entrants into the public service. [21725/18]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Motor Insurance Coverage (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 54. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that musicians have particular difficulty in obtaining motor insurance from motor insurance companies and in many cases are refused even a quote due to their profession; his plans to address the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21746/18]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 264. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if receivers are bound by the Tyrrellstown Amendment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21784/18]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister should put a call into the chief executive officer and get him on the telephone.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Bureaucratic manipulation of figures to meet targets is a feature of Stalinist dictatorships and tin-pot regimes. That is what we saw with the re-categorisation of figures in March and we should desist from trying to meet targets through such manipulations. That also matters for the Opposition. I am fed up hearing that we have to get everybody out of hotels. I am aware of families that I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister is always against Stalin.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We are Trotskyites, yes. We are against Stalin.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: He got an ice pick in the head for his opposition to Stalin.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: He did not like bureaucratic manipulation.