Results 21,761-21,780 of 26,960 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Further Education and Training Bill 2013: Report Stage (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am curious about that. I welcome the Minister of State's acknowledgement of the issue that is the subject of my amendment No. 14. Like his amendment probably is, my amendment is a result of lobbying by people active in the area of adult literacy. They were keen that a specific commitment be included in the Bill on the need for a strategy on literacy and numeracy, given it is such an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Strategy on Suicide Awareness: Discussion (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Strategy on Suicide Awareness: Discussion (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Minister of State. I do not have much to add. From what I can see, she is taking the issue seriously and analysing it to determine how best way to minimise the incidence rate. As she stated, this problem cannot be eliminated. I agree with her comments on streamlining and easy and correct access points. This is a major issue. Generally speaking, people are somewhat...

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The main arguments have been made. I am glad that the Minister of State accepts the general thrust of the argument, if not the actual amendments, in stating her own commitment to a harmonised and fair scheme. I seriously worry that she is leaving the door open for things to move in the opposite direction. The logic behind the amendment is to have harmonisation and I do not really think it...

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Therefore, it has been confirmed in Galway and Kildare. Deputies are nodding in agreement. This is evidence that we need to move urgently to a harmonised and fair system. If the Minister of State said the level of flexibility would be specified and limited to a 1% or 2% variation, I could accept her argument that the transition is acceptable. This, however, is open-ended. She is...

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There should also be consultation with public representatives on local authorities, as well as managers. I will press the amendment on the grounds that the Minister of State is not limiting the discretion of local authorities to increase rents upwards significantly from the model rent she suggests. We need harmonisation. It has to be fair, but the Minister of State's provision leaves too...

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Power, particularly now, is money. Everything else is just decoration. If the Government is cutting budgets for local authorities to provide and maintain social housing while at the same time saying it is empowering local councillors that is frankly a bit disingenuous, to put it very mildly. It has power over an ever-diminishing cake. In that situation only one pressure will come on those...

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It will. There is no question but that it will go up. The pressure on local authorities who are having their central funding reduced will increase. That will also happen with rents. Talk of Stalinism and centralisation is a bit ironic. Without getting into history, more people on the other side of the House had previous associations with Stalinism than those on this side.

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If the Minister of State is concerned about having the input of local authorities on the setting of rents it could be done at a national level. We could have inputs from all local authorities on a national differential rent scheme. The end result would be a national scheme where there would be input from all stakeholders, including anti-poverty groups, housing NGOs and so on as to what...

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Without that rents will increase, which is unacceptable. I will press the amendment.

Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No.1:In page 3, to delete lines 10 to 16 and substitute the following:“(a) in subsection (3) by deleting paragraphs (a) and (b) and substituting:“(a) charges such as rent as is set down in a national rent scheme established by the Minister.”,(b) by deleting subsection (4), (c) in subsection (5) by substituting the following paragraphs for paragraphs (a)...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Property Taxation Exemptions (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 79. To ask the Minister for Finance in view of the exemption from the local property tax for residential properties owned by a charity or a public body and used to provide accommodation and support for persons who have a particular need in addition to a general housing need to enable them to live in the community such as sheltered accommodation for the elderly or the disabled, the reason it...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Felling Licences Conditions (12 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 192. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans for re-planting trees in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, to prevent soil erosion, in view of the amount of tree-felling currently underway. [28188/13]

Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (11 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister says we need an active rather than a passive social welfare system. I agree and suspect most of us do. This amendment concerns the difference between what the social welfare system can do for or to one. It is all about what it can do to one, not at all what it can do for one. That is what needs to be addressed. Other speakers have said people want the education courses,...

Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (11 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Many of them are, which shows that they do not need the stick as much as they need the carrot. This is all stick and no carrot. The Minister needs to examine that issue. If she really wants to help to activate people, instead of Departments inflicting punishments on people, she could set up local employment fora and bring in people on social welfare to ask them what she could do for them...

Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (11 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister has not really addressed the substantial issue that has been raised by a number of Deputies and which is the basis of my amendment and argument. The argument was put to me by SPARK, bearing in mind the impact this legislation will have on lone parents who are working. It will hurt them financially and act as a disincentive to work. The measure is going in precisely the...

Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (11 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Section 10 represents an effort on the part of the Minister to undo the damage that was done in the last budget. It is prompted by the protests of lone parents and organisations representing them, including SPARK and One Family, and points made on their behalf from the Opposition setting out how retrograde was the move to phase in the elimination of the one-parent family payment when...

Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (11 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I support the amendment. The people coming through the door of my office week in and week out seem to confirm the perception which is out there that there is a default position, or even an instruction, whereby if any excuse can be found to refuse a payment, then it will be refused. The perception is that the Government hopes that a significant number of people will simply give up and go...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): International Summits (11 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They were from the locality.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): International Summits (11 Jun 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What about Israel?