Results 25,341-25,360 of 26,986 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wholeheartedly agree with the Deputy. This measure should be called the social destruction Bill, not the Social Welfare Bill. This legislation will hit people on social welfare through the reduction in qualified child increase. It will also hit the eligibility of pensioners to receive contributory pensions. It will hit widowers, child benefit and the one-parent family income disregard....

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister should see if the people outside welcome them.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister is deflecting from the issue.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Why did she not load on PRSI for high income earners instead of hitting pensioners and lone parents?

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Deal with the concerns of the people outside.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does the Minister think the people outside give a damn about what she says?

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There is a common theme to many of the Minister's cuts. What these cuts will do is attack people and families trying to make their way forward, who want to work and contribute to society and get out of poverty. These cuts will act as a disincentive to work and will hit people at the margin of a certain level of earnings. This is wrong. The suggested threshold is €400. If the other...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister has said that three times.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The fact that Fianna Fáil sold out the country to the troika, bankrupted it and did equally disgusting things in the last budget does not in any way justify the Government's actions in continuing the same policies. We will not reach and properly scrutinise other sections of the Bill because the Government is ramming the legislation through. This is the most important Bill the Government...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister should increase it further instead of hitting people at the bottom. We would not have these anomalies then. However, the Government has resolutely refused to impose higher taxes on those who can afford them. If people at the bottom are hit, it will create more poverty and cost society more. It will not just cost the Labour Party many seats at the next election or cause people...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Many people will no longer qualify for the contributory pension.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister said in one of her last comments that she was not touching pensions, contributory or non-contributory, but section 5 suggests the opposite, that now people must work not five years, but ten years to contribute.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will support it and I want to move on to other matters. The difficulty is that the Minister has the advantage on us because we want to scrutinise this and the Minister again has not given us time to look at it. I hope she is right and I will support it if it is a measure to maintain pensions.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is what we are supposed to do now, on Committee Stage of the Bill.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish we had enough time to debate this properly. This means people must work much longer in this category to qualify for the contributory pension. If they do not have sufficient years paid in contributions, they must rely on the State non-contributory pension, a lesser pension that is means tested. That is an attack on a particular group and the pension entitlements they might have...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Part-time workers.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: No, it has not been withdrawn.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A Cheann Comhairle-----

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I know that.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: When one considers this measure and the other measures, namely, the concurrent payment and the income disregard, all of which are directed at lone parent families that might be trying to return or that have returned to the workplace and when one also takes into account the community employment cuts, it is difficult to believe the Minister has not resorted to specifically targeting-----