Results 21-40 of 42 for other and baby speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Leaders' Questions (30 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Minister, Deputy Zappone, for bringing this issue to light. What we are seeing here is yet another bombshell exposing the toxic relationship between church and State in this country and the human damage and hardship it has imposed and continues to impose on very significant numbers of people. In this case it is clear that this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg but 126...

Housing: Motion [Private Members] (24 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Why is it that the Government feels it is necessary and possible to introduce emergency measures and emergency legislation to cut people's pay, to bail out banks or, as Deputy Murphy, said, to show its capacity in a good sense to take emergency measures in the face of a hurricane hitting this country? Governments can take emergency measures, marshal resources in an urgent way, which it would...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (2 May 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 1426. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the proposed scope of the mother and baby home investigation; the other sites that will be investigated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19269/17]

Commission of Investigation Announcement on Tuam Mother and Baby Home: Statements (Resumed) (22 Mar 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have to say I find this whole issue extremely distressing, as do huge numbers of people. As Deputy McDonald has already done, I want to pay tribute to those who have campaigned for truth and justice on this issue. I am glad that we are at least close to the moment of vindication for those who suffered and died at the hands of the Bon Secours order in Tuam and the State that colluded with...

Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (16 Dec 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: .... I will make some brief points on this grouping. First, it is very unfortunate that the issues to do with what the Minister described as streamlining the planning process to achieve what he and all of us want to achieve, namely, the ramping up of supply of housing, are being linked to other measures. We are having to vote on all of these measures together, which makes it difficult...

Coroners Bill 2015: Second Stage [Private Members] (11 Dec 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I commend Deputy Clare Daly on bringing forward this amendment Bill. I also pay tribute to the families who have lost loved ones, who have come here today and have campaigned for this change to make the Coroners Act 1962 what it should be, in order to deal with the situations and circumstances of today. An overhaul of the Bill is long overdue. We must ensure that people who lose loved ones...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality (1 Apr 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I also asked about another matter. Ultimately, these decisions come back to the Minister of State. I take the point about bringing like-minded people together, which is fair enough. We need to do that urgently because we are 15 years too late, but then it comes back to the Minister of State. Some details are up for discussion about how exactly we do the right thing and that there may be...

An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Comhionannas Pósta) 2015: An Dara Céim (Atógáil) - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (11 Mar 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As Deputy Clare Daly stated, this is a happy occasion because we are further expanding the boundaries of freedom, equality and self-determination and placing another example of bigotry in the dustbin of history where it belongs. I very much welcome the Bill and look forward to the referendum campaign we will conduct in the weeks ahead. I hope and confidently believe we will achieve a...

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Minister's officials for their briefing on the Bill. I have no doubt they put a great deal of work into this very detailed and progressive legislation, which I welcome. The Bill seeks to acknowledge the reality of family life in Ireland today and, in that sense, is long overdue. We have moved a long way from the conception of certain people of what a family is supposed to be....

Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (29 Jan 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: For the 10,000 or so women who went through the Magdalen laundries, nothing we can do can undo the trauma and suffering they were put through or can undo the abuse, abandonment, exploitation and cruelty that was visited on them. Many of them are dead and will never see justice, their lives robbed almost entirely from them. The vast majority of those who still survive, most of whom are over...

Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation: Motion (Resumed) (28 Jan 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I commend the various organisations representing the survivors of the vast array of institutions that formed this architecture of oppression, abuse and persecution which ruined the lives of tens of thousands of women and children. It abused them, robbed them of their identities and histories and inflicted a crime on tens of thousands of vulnerable people and children. The damage that was done...

An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (An Ceart chun Féinriarachta Pearsanta agus Sláine Colainne) 2014: An Dara Céim (Atógáil) [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Personal Autonomy and Bodily Integrity) Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (17 Dec 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Many Government spokespersons have called for a rational, sensible and sensitive debate on this sensitive issue. That is fair enough but let us clarify what this debate about. It is not about anyone's personal views on abortion. While everyone is welcome to his or her views on the issue, people should also be able to make decisions about their lives, health and welfare. This debate is...

Direct Provision for Asylum Seekers: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 Oct 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Deputy Pringle for bringing this motion forward. It is long overdue that we have a discussion. For 14 years, we have had an indefensible and shameful system for dealing with vulnerable and poor people who have come to this country looking for refuge and help. Rather than give them refuge and help, we have imprisoned them in the most appalling circumstances and left them there with...

Interdepartmental Report on the Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes: Statements (17 Jul 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The horror we have learned about regarding what happened in the mother and baby homes represents another dark chapter in a pretty bleak history in the State's treatment of children and women. It is a history of abuse, mistreatment, discrimination, and needless death and mortality. These are the most serious of failings by the State imaginable. Some of the facts that have been revealed...

Death and Burial of Children in Mother and Baby Homes: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (11 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...;in for tabling it. However, those whom I commend most are the people in the Visitors Gallery, including those who were here earlier when we were dealing with a modern example of the neglect of women and children in the provision of housing. It is a terrible stain not alone on our past but also on our present that the victims of these crimes, in the main, poor women and children, have...

Guerin Report: Statements (Resumed) (28 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The revelations and scandals surrounding allegations of Garda malpractice, corruption, cover-ups and wrongdoing are of the most serious nature. We have had in very quick succession quite shocking revelations about the extent of these practices within An Garda Síochána and allegations regarding the apparent complicity of the Department of Justice and Equality and Governments and...

Confidence in the Minister for Justice and Equality; and Defence: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (2 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We cannot have confidence in the Minister for Justice and Equality. His appalling behaviour in dealing with the penalty points scandal, the whistleblowers, the bugging scandal in GSOC and now the taping controversy has been well rehearsed here, so I will not go through it. All of those things have brought the administration of justice and policing in the State into disrepute. That is why...

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (11 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: No, the people of Ireland did not at any point express a desire for a 14 year prison sentence for women who procured abortions or for those who provided such a service. The only possible justification there could be for the criminalisation of abortion is, as Deputy Clare Daly mentioned, the practice of back street abortions. That is the only justification. However, that is not a...

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...to some of the Technical Group's section 9 amendments that are in this grouping, but I also wish to comment on some of the amendments tabled by the Minister of State, Deputy Lucinda Creighton, and others who are opposed full stop to the section, who are coming at it from a different perspective. Deputy Tóibín and the Minister of State referred a number of times to the concern...

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2013)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...chose not to say “No” because we believe they have an unanswerable case for the issue that has affected them to be dealt with. It is as simple as that. I also have personal experience of it and so I understood and sympathised with what they went through. I understand Deputy Healy Rae’s ignorance of this issue, as many people do not fully understand what these...