Results 22,621-22,640 of 26,960 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

State Forestry: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This is a major asset but, as the Minister correctly said, it has not been properly developed by Coillte. We are not here to stand up for Coillte as it is currently constituted. The reason that Coillte has underdeveloped our forests is that it has been preparing them for privatisation since Ray Burke, Bertie Ahern, Frank Fahey and Ray MacSharry established it. That is why it has been...

State Forestry: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Here is the supreme irony. The Minister says we must sell the harvesting rights to our forests because we must pay off the gambling debts of banks, yet those banks or a Swiss bank such as Helveta Wealth, with its subsidiary headed by the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, may end up owning the forests. The choice we are putting forward is very simple. Should the people or the banks own the...

State Forestry: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is that a dig?

State Forestry: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister should vote for the motion then.

Other Questions: Departmental Staff Numbers (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Deputy Mick Wallace is specifically referring to those who return to their former places of employment via the agency route.

Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The wording of my question may have led to its being misunderstood. The phrase "or body under his aegis" refers to the wider role of the Minister in public sector reform and throughout the public service. I am trying to get information on the phenomenon of the re-hiring of people who took early retirement and were in receipt of big lump sum payments. Although people who are retired from...

Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I welcome the Minister's response. It would be useful to quantify the extent to which this is happening, because it grates hugely with people who are lower down the ladder. It also raises the question of why people were retired if their skills were still required. Either they should have been retired or they should not have been. If retired, they should have stayed retired and those on...

Other Questions: Croke Park Agreement (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As the Minister is well aware, I am implacably opposed to this new Croke Park deal in so far as it requires further sacrifices from low and middle-income workers. Following from Deputy Sean Fleming's point about the net savings the Government hopes to make, the Minister mentioned macro-economic variables. If I understand it correctly, he said that the Government will carry out further...

Other Questions: Croke Park Agreement (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does the Minister agree it is rather bizarre not to carry out an analysis of the likely impact on the rest of the economy before ramming through these cuts to the incomes of low and middle-income workers?

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Economic Statistics (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide, in tabular form, the annual figures on gross capital information here between the years 2000 and 2012 or up to as recently as such figures are available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10730/13]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Official Engagements (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on discussions held with EU Finance Ministers in Davos, Switzerland, on 24 January; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5484/13]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Gas Exploration (27 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on the declared profits from Kinsale Gas since its commencement; the total tax take to the State and the effective tax rate; if he will provide a breakdown by year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4597/13]

State Forestry: Motion [Private Members] (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In this case, it is somebody else selling them.

State Forestry: Motion [Private Members] (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move:“That Dáil Éireann: notes, with dismay, the Government’s intention, under the Troika deal, to sell the harvesting rights to our national forests; notes that:— Ireland’s publicly owned forests are one of our most precious natural resources and a priceless part of our culture and heritage, that must be nurtured and protected in the interests of...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): EU Presidency Engagements (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, thank you. I am not being a miserable skinflint or extremist in suggesting the budget for the Presidency might be excessive.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): EU Presidency Engagements (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does the Taoiseach agree that the budget is excessive when we are proposing to spend twice as much as the Danish Presidency - in the region of €70 million - and when many of those who will be catering for and facilitating delegates coming to events are being hammered with cuts? They are being placed in extreme financial distress as a result of decisions being made by the EU...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): EU Presidency Engagements (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It would be a useful trip for delegates and give them a sense of the reality of what their austerity measures are doing to the State. To be happy-clappy and handing out ties, scarves and mugs when the country is being battered with austerity policies is to take the stage Irishman act a little too far. We should be pointing out to delegates the grim reality that their determination to force...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): EU Presidency Engagements (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The figure is €70 million.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): EU Presidency Engagements (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Give them a brick from a NAMA building.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): EU Presidency Engagements (26 Feb 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We could give them a sapling from a Coillte forest before we send them off.