Results 22,641-22,660 of 26,986 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

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

Richard Boyd Barrett: Look at the heckling.

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

Richard Boyd Barrett: We are asking the Government to keep these assets in public ownership and develop them the way they are developed elsewhere in Europe. Switzerland is half the size of Ireland with roughly the same acreage under forest and it has 100,000 forestry-related jobs. We could do that. We could get money from the European Investment Bank to do it. It is money in the bank and it would protect our...

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

Richard Boyd Barrett: I hope I will get the Ministers' attention for this last few minutes, as the author of this motion. A great deal of work has gone into it. It is a very serious issue. I thank my colleagues in the United Left Alliance and other Independent colleagues who signed the motion and spoke so well and passionately on it. I also thank Members on all sides of the House who have spoken on it and...

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

Richard Boyd Barrett: He and his group have collected over 30,000 signatures in opposition to the sale of any part of Coillte harvesting rights or any other asset. The reason there is such a broad coalition of opposition to the sale of Coillte harvesting rights is itself indicative of how many different reasons there are for opposing the sale. Every sector and stakeholder and anybody who has any concern with...

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

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have read it, and it is contradictory. The Government agreed it last June and now it is being considered. I am glad the Government is shifting its position. I believe it is doing so because all the evidence is piling up, as is the public pressure. The Government knows there is no justification for doing this, except to meet the targets of the troika to pay off the gambling debts of...

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

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister had his chance to speak. By definition those entities are not concerned with public access. That is not their job. I am not making a moral statement, just an objective statement of fact. They are interested in making money. Public access, maintaining biodiversity, meeting climate change targets, creating jobs for the economy or creating revenue for the State will not be...

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...