Results 10,321-10,340 of 26,843 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Affordable Housing: Discussion (18 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They come to the agency.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Affordable Housing: Discussion (18 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The agency is not tied in directly to the implementation of the overall Rebuilding Ireland plan, but is brought in.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Negligence Claims (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 133. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 852 of 8 May 2019, the steps a person can take to seek justice in the case of medical negligence dating back a number of years in which the symptoms of the person as a result became more apparent and worse years later, where the case is statute barred and the person cannot avail of justice from the State Claims Agency;...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As long as we have been dealing with this issue, which has been for some time, I have let the Minister of State and the Government know that People Before Profit's view is that the only way fair insurance premiums will be achieved and the profiteering of the insurance industry stopped is to have a not-for-profit insurance company. The sooner we go down that road, the better. Then we will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The problem is, and the Minister of State did not really respond to this point, that there is nothing we can do apart from keeping the spotlight on them, to use the Minister of State's phrase. There is nothing we can do to compel them to give fair premiums and not to profiteer. There is nothing we can do to stop them just exiting the market whenever it suits them for whatever reasons they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is the Minister of State saying that if somebody cannot make a profit out of an important insurance sector, then that sector just will not have insurance coverage? That is the logic of what he is saying. Take taxi drivers as an example. Society and public transport need taxi drivers. However, problems with insurance coverage and premiums threaten the livelihoods of taxi drivers if they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is bonkers for us to allow that to happen.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We do fix the price for the taxi driver.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I agree with all of that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We do not. However, there is a cross-party agreement on these issues. We needed to address them and they are being addressed now. I will give credit where credit is due. This is notwithstanding the fact that people have legitimate claims for serious injuries.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is fair enough. We should not debate matters we do not have to debate. Insurance fraud should be stamped out. Excessive awards should not happen. Cases being dragged on for ever and ever with extortionate legal costs should not happen. We need to streamline that in the interests of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----society, business and people who have to take out insurance for one reason or another. My point is that there is no mechanism to prevent insurance companies taking advantage of the well-intentioned work of the committee and all parties or of the measures taken by the Minister of State. I put it to the Minister of State that is what they are doing. They are taking advantage of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am firmly of the view that they are. As I said, I believe we need a not-for-profit insurance company. If one looks at road safety generally, it has improved over recent years. Safety in the workplace has generally improved, with workplace fatalities going down.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay. We agree on that point. As Charlie Weston rightly put it, there is something wrong in the Irish insurance industry and it is not just about these matters.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: My point is that we will be here again dealing with high insurance premiums in two years when all of this is gone through because they are profiteering. I have raised with the Minister of State and his predecessor engagement with the taxi advisory committee on the specific problems faced by the taxi industry. I understand one meeting occurred with Insurance Ireland and the taxi advisory...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will anything practical come out of it? Will anything be done for taxi drivers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Cost of Insurance Working Group: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (13 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is that as much as the Minister of State can say? Yes. The issue was raised repeatedly by me and others as well as by taxi drivers that premiums for them were so high that their livelihoods were at risk. If they had even the slightest prang, it could push their premiums to a point where it was not viable to operate as a taxi driver. That is still a particular problem and we need taxis....

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Functions (12 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Where is it?

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Functions (12 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: More money needs to be spent on housing and health to address the crisis in both of those things and in many areas of the public service too. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council representatives said - I am on the committee - that if the Government is going to do that, then it must find extra sources of revenue. Those of us in People Before Profit are unique in that in every single budget...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Programmes (12 Jun 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: At the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government this morning, Mercy Law, the Children's Ombudsman, the Children's Rights Alliance and Focus Ireland gave an utterly damning indictment of the Government's treatment of children, specifically children who are affected by the housing and homelessness crisis, detailing, for example, that 167 families have been in emergency hub...