Results 24,201-24,220 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Has the Taoiseach asked the departmental officials who were present at the time where the records are? It stinks to high heaven that there is no record of this most important decision and the deliberations on it. What investigations has the Taoiseach carried out into the record keeping for that crucial meeting if he is so worried about it?

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It stinks to high heaven that there is no record of this most important meeting or the deliberations that led to this disastrous decision. I have pointed out that it is amusing that the Taoiseach is poking fun at Fianna Fáil when his party supported the decision. We all know, as it turned out, that the rationale was shared by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the European authorities-----

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----to protect the banks at all costs and sacrifice the rest of us to pay for it.

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If the Taoiseach is so concerned about the matter, what investigations has he conducted to ascertain whether records were taken by departmental officials or anybody else, especially if he is making the serious suggestion there may have been shredding or the dispatching of these critical records? It is suspicious that there are no records, what is he doing to find out what happened to them,...

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If there are pieces of paper, the Taoiseach should publish them.

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Who?

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Has the Taoiseach asked the departmental officials?

Departmental Records (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Can we confirm that notes were taken?

Written Answers — Humanitarian Access: Humanitarian Access (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Question 13: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the action at a political and diplomatic level he will take to ensure the Sudanese regime allows supplies of food and medicine to reach refugees in Southern Sudan in view of the fact that the Sudanese Government has stopped humanitarian aid reaching refugees since anti-regime protests began; and if he will make a...

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (Resumed) (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 33: In page 45, to delete lines 28 to 43 and in page 46, to delete lines 1 to 22. We are opposed to the switch to linking pensions to the consumer price index. It will leave public sector pensioners worse off in the future. The current scheme includes a guaranteed link between public sector pensions and public service pay. That link is to be broken and pensions are to...

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (Resumed) (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The State squandered it.

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (Resumed) (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister appears to be suggesting that this is favourable from the point of view of future pensioners in that any changes to future entitlements will be upward only. He has stated also that there is nothing about this change about which we should be concerned. However, section 4 - this point has already been made so I will try not to labour it - provides that the Minister shall decide...

Foreign Conflicts (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to correct a comment made earlier. Not all of us are in favour of a two-state solution. Some of us believe the two-state solution is a recipe for ethnic cleansing of precisely the sort we have seen and continue to see by the rogue Israeli State. At what point does the international community realise that Israel is a rogue state, that it is involved in ethnic cleansing, that it has...

Nuclear Proliferation (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I want to make it clear that I have no time for the Iranian regime, nuclear weapons or nuclear power. Can the Minister explain the extraordinary double standards that apply when it comes to the treatment of Iran as against the treatment of Israel? Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians, illegally occupying their land and territory, denying them rights at every level, has launched more...

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would like to reinforce the point. Everybody accepts that firefighters, prison officers and Army personnel do extremely difficult, arduous and sometimes very dangerous jobs and that it is entirely fair and reasonable that they retire earlier. They should not be penalised more than others because of the nature of their jobs. Judging from the tone of the Minister's response when this issue...

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I second the amendment. I will simply reiterate the point made by Deputy McDonald. People are scandalised by top civil servants and politicians walking away with obscene pension pots when the rest of the country is being crucified by austerity and cuts. It is particularly galling, as the Minister will be aware, that some of the people whom many would hold responsible for the current...

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am a little confused about what we are discussing. What amendment is it?

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How does that amendment relate to the subjects we have debated?

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If we are having a discussion about those matters, I would like to contribute.

Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage (11 Jul 2012)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will make a brief contribution. Until now, pension entitlements were dependent on increases in public sector pay and the automatic link has been broken, meaning we are into a much more vague metric involving the consumer price index, with all the potential ups and downs in that. I heard Deputy Fleming state that public sector pay was ahead of the consumer price index but I do not accept that.