Results 12,221-12,240 of 26,897 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They will take a house.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is spurious. Come on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Can the Minister get somewhere for these people tonight?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I echo the call made by the previous speaker. I also raised that issue a couple of weeks ago and I really think the Minister has to take that action. It is not right to pretend that HAP is a permanent housing solution when it is not. Some people are satisfied with HAP. If they are happy to be off the list, that is fair enough. However, it is not right to take people off the housing...

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not think this is happening and that there is proper enforcement of this. The Office of Government Procurement and the Minister of State should be putting pressure on the relevant Departments to ensure this happens. I mention Western Building Systems, which built a school in Whitehall that I understand has been sitting empty for perhaps a decade because it is structurally unsound. We...

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 11. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is considering measures to deal with companies that are found to have been negligent, fraudulent or substandard in the work on public contracts; and if he will preclude the companies from bidding for public contracts in the future. [21724/18]

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am asking whether the Minister of State will consider bringing in more serious penalties and excluding contractors who do work paid for out of the public purse through public procurement or contracts where those companies are found to have been substandard, negligent in their work or engaged in fraudulent behaviour. I am thinking of issues like schools that were built in a substandard...

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I ask whether companies found to be guilty of those sort of failings should be excluded from further public contracts.

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That looks good on paper, but is it happening? For example, I remind the Minister of State about Western Building Systems and the company that built 31 schools. A report into fire safety issues resulting from substandard building in an audit of five schools initially, which we were supposed to have had by now, revealed they were found to be fire safety defective. A report was to be...

Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is extraordinary that such companies are still being awarded public contracts. All firms that were found to have been involved in bogus self-employment arrangements, such as the JJ Rhatigan dispute----

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 30. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if, in the context of the increasing difficulty on recruiting and retaining employees in key areas of the public service, he will eliminate the pay inequality faced by new entrants into the public service. [21725/18]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Motor Insurance Coverage (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 54. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that musicians have particular difficulty in obtaining motor insurance from motor insurance companies and in many cases are refused even a quote due to their profession; his plans to address the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21746/18]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (17 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 264. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if receivers are bound by the Tyrrellstown Amendment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21784/18]

Topical Issue Debate: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Ministers please just do it and involve us?

Topical Issue Debate: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As I said, the Shanganagh Castle site could deliver 540 social and affordable homes. I have been campaigning on the issue for six or seven years, but nothing is happening. Two of my colleagues, Councillors Lisa Halpin and Hugh Lewis, put forward the first motion calling for social and affordable housing on the site. There is cross-party support on the issue. The question now is whether...

Topical Issue Debate: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have been campaigning for social and affordable housing on the Shanganah site since it was closed down as a prison and transferred to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, before I was even elected to the Dáil in 2011. It is a matter of immense frustration to me, to the people on the housing list and the people in the area that a publicly owned site is sitting there, which is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I welcome the last point made by Mr. Coffey because it deals with one of the issues I wanted to raise with him. Is the intangible assets issue not a big scam in the light of the higher contributions the Irish people have to pay to the European Union? As stated by Mr. Coffey, companies get to write off gross profits resulting from these intangible assets as an allowance. They can...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is what they do. They make up the price.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How are the assets valued?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Corporation Tax Regime: Discussion (16 May 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They can put any value they like on them. It appears that the value they put on them is just enough to make sure they do not pay any tax. Effectively, they write their own tax bills, but we then make additional EU contributions which are based on gross trading profits, rather than taxable income which is zero.