Results 3,221-3,240 of 27,236 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am sorry if I am asking dumb questions, but did the committees look at the drafts of what is to go in the report and the metrics being used in each Department?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The officials will go to private session meetings of every single committee.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If the committees look for it.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As a matter of interest, to see how that works in practice in the past few years, how long have the reports been going on?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Have committees come back to the officials and discussed with them what is in their particular section?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Right.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am just picking this out as an instance but affordable housing, for example, is not included as a metric, which is an important one. Nor is the subdivision of social housing and now we also have cost rental and affordable purchase. If we take that as an example, we could definitely do with a little more detail in that regard. These issues are my hobby-horses, but I am quite interested...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Maybe tax expenditures is a more general issue. I am just looking at it now. Do tax expenditures get covered?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Perhaps it is something that might be for the committee to consider. We have been discussing tax expenditures generally and we have looked at some of them specifically. We have characterised them to some extent as a shadow budget, in that they are directed towards certain policy objectives but they are treated differently from direct expenditures. We have questioned them and suggested...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, I get that and we do not want to have it so dense with detail, fine print and what not that it becomes unreadable. I definitely think tax expenditure is a significant area. In the case of film, for example, the biggest source of funding is not direct expenditure through Screen Ireland; the biggest expenditure is a tax break. There may be other instances of this. I am sure there are....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Test (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 43. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport what options are available to a person who has lost possible employment because they cannot get a driving test (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31504/23]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Healthcare Policy (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 160. To ask the Minister for Health given that 28 June is International Neonatal Screening Day, the progress he is making on expanding the national heel-prick test; how many diseases babies born today in Ireland are currently being tested for; when he will decide on including spinal muscular atrophy in new-born screening; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31497/23]

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2022 (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, percentages.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Scope audit is looking into bogus self-employment.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Four hours waiting and I get three minutes. There is a lot at stake. To me, public service broadcasting is critical. I do not want to see a world where Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and for-profit companies are the only ones who provide us with news or broadcasting, but what has happened here has put the credibility of public service broadcasting seriously at risk. Therefore, we have to...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: So, one presenter or their agent was not willing to take the pain. It has been described as a failure of corporate governance. It most certainly was that, but would any reasonable person looking on not say it was a bit more than that? I am trying to be fair but this really looks like orchestrated, organised deceit and concealment by somebody. When everybody else was taking cuts, the...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: You can draw no other inference from that other than it was being done deliberately because if it had not been done deliberately, there would have been uproar and legal would have challenged that.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I want to get a bit more forensic detail. I think this question has been answered but I want to get it clear in my head. Renault was never going to pay anything, was it? Even without invoking the guarantee, RTÉ was always going to pay. Is that not correct? I want to understand that part of it.