Results 9,561-9,580 of 26,897 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Update on Rebuilding Ireland: Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (12 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will dispense with a couple of red herrings, although I acknowledge that the Minister, his staff and local authority workers are working hard on this issue. Things are happening but the problem, to be clear, is that Rebuilding Ireland is flawed because it relies, by a ratio of 3:1, on the private sector to build social housing and is, therefore, destined to fail. That is my argument, to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Update on Rebuilding Ireland: Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (12 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have two one-line questions for the Minister. If the Constitution needs to be changed to pass a Bill like that, why did the Minister oppose a Bill that we brought forward in 2017 to change the Constitution, precisely to facilitate that? The Constitution should be changed in order to ensure that property rights do not supersede the right of people to be housed. To clarify what the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Taoiseach should tell pensioners who have to struggle with high rents, property taxes and a high cost of living that their pension is wonderful. It is a fact that the countries with the highest age at which one can receive one's pension entitlements are those that were affected by austerity, including Greece, Ireland and Italy. In other countries in Europe, which are not as fast-growing...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am glad the Taoiseach mentioned employer's PRSI because the reason is that employers do not pay their fair share of PRSI in Ireland If they did, we would not be forcing people to wait until the age of 68 in order to get their pension. Workers in this country pay the same average amount of PRSI as their European counterparts but employers pay about half of that and that is the problem....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Why does the Government not reverse that unjust attack on people's pension rights?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They are trying to, but they might be stopped.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In that case, people should be allowed to retire for longer.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Workers pay for it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The bitter and lasting fruits of the savage austerity that was imposed on working people first by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and then by Fine Gael and Labour are very plain to see with the brutal housing crisis we face and the shocking situation in the health service but events in France over the past five days where massive demonstrations and strikes are taking place remind us of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Not in Dún Laoghaire.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 47. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has read the recent report on the effect of homelessness on the development of children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51871/19]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There are many unacceptable manifestations of the housing and homelessness emergency, which the Minister's policies have generated, but the most upsetting is the plight of children in emergency accommodation or who are homeless. A number of reports from the Royal College of Physicians and from housing NGOs have exposed the shocking extent to which children in homeless accommodation are being...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: People are fed up of hearing the Minister reel off statistics and claim achievements when it is blatantly obvious to everybody that the housing and homelessness emergency is worse than it has ever been. In terms of social housing delivery output, let me repeat that in my area, next year, two council houses will be built. If one includes AHBs, it will be 13. That is how much new delivery we...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----difficulties in relationships between parents and their children, and children born into homelessness unable to swallow, unable to learn how to crawl. Does the Minister think that is acceptable? What is he going to do to get children out of that abusive situation?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This report is from the Royal College of Physicians. I think it knows a thing or two about the development of children and this is what it is saying is the children who spent time in homelessness accommodation. I put in parliamentary questions and I am expecting answers tomorrow, although the Minister just indicated we will not get those answers. How many children - we know there are 4,000...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Land Development Agency (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 57. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the land and homes on a site (details supplied) will remain in public ownership into the future in view of the possible transfer of a site to the Land Development Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51873/19]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Eligibility (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 94. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to ensure that income eligibility for public housing is raised to ensure that those on middle incomes have access to safe and secure housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51872/19]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: An Bord Pleanála (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 69. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the fact that the quorum in An Bord Pleanála is only three members, which means that two members of the board are making decisions on major planning applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51870/19]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Waiting Lists (11 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 74. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to ensure the figures of those on the RAS and HAP transfer lists are included on the list of those awaiting social housing by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51874/19]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Children and Family Services Provision (10 Dec 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They are playing games.