Results 7,081-7,100 of 26,843 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I can certainly see the logic for why a bit of flexibility is needed in rural areas, but I believe that a bit of flexibility is required in urban areas too, depending on the need to deliver, and notwithstanding the critical importance of not reinforcing or underpinning unaffordable prices. As I said, given a stark choice between a vulture fund buying up houses and a local authority buying...

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will try to be as brief as I can. We are not going to get to many of the key amendments to this Bill because we only have three hours to debate. That is a fact caused by the Government's guillotine. It is not necessary. We should have an opportunity to debate these amendments because this legislation is too important. Deputy Mattie McGrath made slightly personalised comments,...

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In fact, I built council houses in Peckham in London, which I went to see recently, and they are still standing. I was delighted. They were built by Irish building contractors for whom I worked there.

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They are still in public ownership. They were built through the model-----

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They were built through the model by which houses should be built as against public-private partnership. I am speaking directly to the amendments.

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I know that. They are my amendments and I am speaking directly to them.

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Those houses in Peckham were built under the model by which the local authority contracts to build a certain number of public houses and then small builders and private builders come in and build them. It is not a public-private partnership. The Government is throwing mud in people's eyes and trying to create a division by suggesting we are trying to exclude the small builder from...

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 5: In page 7, to delete lines 27 and 28. As we discussed with the last group of amendments, we are happy to have arrangements with not-for-profit organisations. However, our concerns are not just ideological concerns, as the Minister regularly trots out, but concerns based on experience with what the private investors want out of property and housing and what their...

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister and the Government know that our big concern and the concern of a lot of people out there is that affordable housing may turn out not to be affordable for the working people who desperately need it. People may not have heard it on the microphones, but across the Chamber just now the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, said that it will be. I have no doubt that the Minister hopes...

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 1: In page 6, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “and shall be passed by both houses of the Oireachtas before being signed into law”. Let us be clear that we all want to see genuinely affordable housing being delivered. However, one of the many problems with this Bill is that a whole range of the key issues which would ensure we would...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Immigration Policy (8 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 302. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she plans to include migrants who had residency prior to becoming undocumented regardless of time spent undocumented in the regularisation scheme for undocumented people in Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36934/21]

Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is for the whole debate. Let us get to the vote.

Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Since I entered the Dáil in 2011, I have been railing against the policies pursued by the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government, the Fine Gael-Independents Government and the current Government in that they have actively encouraged vulture and cuckoo funds to come in and take over what was virtually the entire NAMA portfolio. Now they are coming in to buy up new estates and they are pricing...

Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I pointed out to the Minister and to other Ministers previously that certain cohorts of people who should get support and tick all the boxes for the support schemes are mysteriously excluded from them, which is really unfair. Obviously, I support the CRSS and have done so previously. I agree that the new business resumption support scheme dealt with in the Bill should be established but,...

Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill 2019 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To be honest, I am worried about this legislation and what it is trying to achieve. In theory, the principles of having proper grievance procedures, having a charter for parents and students, having proper information that is available about how the school operates, its funding and where the funding goes, are not bad ideas. However, I worry that it essentially lets the Government off the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: European Council (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Following the attempt at ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and the conflict and military brutality from Israel that provoked, the Government agreed to pass a motion that acknowledged illegal settlements were taking place on Israel's part, but it voted down an amendment I tabled that sought to characterise the situation as it is, not simply as illegal settlements but as an...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It still does not justify-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I gave the Taoiseach a proposal.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We should, to get the answers.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Jul 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Many in the Opposition have pointed out what a disgraceful move it is to push through this amendment which will incentivise vulture funds to buy up estates if they can lease them back to local authorities. The Taoiseach asked a legitimate question but no one has really answered him. He asked whether we want to turn off the supply of social housing, as if it is a choice between having...