Results 21,621-21,640 of 26,960 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Terms of Reference of Sub-Committee on Global Taxation: Motions (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Are we taking all the motions together?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Terms of Reference of Sub-Committee on Global Taxation: Motions (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes. I find it extraordinary that there would be any effort to block a request to bring representatives of multinationals such as Google, Facebook and others, which have been accused in a number of quarters internationally-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Some of those who have opposed this element of the Bill have used something of a red herring argument, namely, that termination can never be a cure for suicidal ideation. Nobody has ever claimed that. It is off the pitch in terms of being a relevant argument to what we are talking about. The Supreme Court made the correct decision; in the case of X, a 14-year-old girl who was raped and...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There are other interpretations.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is clarifying the meaning of it.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We are narrowing the scope.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Chairman for his indulgence because I have to attend a finance committee meeting shortly but I want to make a number of points to the Minister of State. I will begin where he concluded. I agree with the Minister when he says that delay is tantamount to not vindicating people's rights in this case and for that reason I agree wholeheartedly with what he said about Deputy...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Exactly, but if what we are trying to do is vindicate the woman's right to life and ensure there is no threat to her life, if we were certifying or assessing suicidal ideation in this case than would be the case normally where there was not a pregnancy means that woman's rights are being diluted. She is getting second class rights because there is a pregnancy. I am not a doctor but...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If I could be allowed finish-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Finally, I want to underline the point about the obstetrician because there is no medical reason for an obstetrician to be involved in certifying whether somebody is suicidal or not and whether the threat to a woman's life in that instance is real or substantial.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister has stated that the suggestion or proposal that this legislation should include the qualification that the threat to a woman's life should neither be immediate or inevitable would be superfluous. I put it to the Minister in the strongest terms that this is wrong.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes. The Minister responded to members' points and I am responding to his point. He is completely wrong. If the Supreme Court thought it sufficiently important to put in that qualification to explain what was meant by a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman, namely, that it did not have to be inevitable or immediate, why in this legislation is the Minister second-guessing what...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not want to prolong the discussion, except to say that the Minister's response to the point that I and Deputy Seamus Healy have raised is inadequate. The Supreme Court felt it important enough to put in this important qualification in terms of what represents a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman. They felt it was necessary to clarify that such risk must not be...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Obviously, this is part of a group of amendments. The amendments put forward by Deputy Seamus Healy and supported by a number of us fall if the Minister's is accepted. This really gets to a very important aspect of the Bill. This is far to onerous a bar to jump over for women whose lives may be threatened because of suicidal ideation, and we do not see the justification for having three...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On the section.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will do that.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Deputy Healy has made an important point. There is a disagreement about this but the Minister and Minister of State have made a reasonable point about not interfering with-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----best medical practice and being too prescriptive. We have made a reasonable point about the need to underline urgency. If the Minister accepts the sentiment he might consider some way of addressing both those concerns, for example one could insert after if practical, "and with due regard to the urgency of the situation".

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What we know is that up until now the criminalisation of certain medical practices meant there was a chill factor. Frankly, the very draconian 14-year prison sentence could still act as a chill factor which could compromise medical objectivity when making decisions in these difficult circumstances. I do not accept the Minister’s assurances on this. He does not acknowledge that time...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Deputy is politicising this.