Results 13,561-13,580 of 26,901 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (4 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 5. To ask the Taoiseach if he has spoken with Chancellor Merkel recently. [41674/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (4 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The situation in Catalonia, about which the Taoiseach was asked yesterday, continues to escalate. What conversations has he had, and what does he intend to have, with other European leaders about the escalating crisis? There was a narrative yesterday, partly echoed by the Taoiseach, involving the condemnation of violence in general and the need for dialogue. Judging from the...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Renewable Energy Projects (4 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 61. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which the current RESS plan announced by him will encourage or facilitate disadvantaged or rural communities to participate in renewable energy projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41842/17]

Topical Issue Debate: Referendum in Catalonia (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Condemning the violence, as the Taoiseach has done, is a start, but it is not acceptable for European Union leaders, including the Taoiseach, to refuse to condemn the violent suppression of the exercise of self-determination. They are condemning violence but not the decision to suppress a democratic vote. In fact, to some extent, there is a justification for talking about it being an...

Topical Issue Debate: Referendum in Catalonia (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am also concerned by the response. The Minister of State said, "We trust our Spanish friends to decide for themselves how to shape their future." That is the problem. I do not trust Mariano Rajoy or the Spanish state that has a brutal history of suppressing the desire for self-determination of the people of Catalonia. We do not and should not trust them. What we saw on Saturday was a...

Other Questions: Afforestation Programme (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 37. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he is satisfied that current afforestation rates are sufficient in view of the requirement to significantly expand climate change mitigation measures as part of commitments under the Paris climate accords; if current rates of felling are negating the already low level of afforestation; and if he will make a statement on the...

Other Questions: Afforestation Programme (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There is a lot of lipservice paid to the commitment to deal with climate change but often not the radical action that is required to actually do something about it. Nowhere is that more true than in the area of forestry. What practical plans have we got to significantly ramp up the afforestation programme from its current pitifully low level? We are planting only approximately 6,000 ha a...

Other Questions: Afforestation Programme (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: These are the actual figures.

Other Questions: Afforestation Programme (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We used to have a target of 17% of forest cover from the current position of 11%, which is one of the lowest in Europe. The average forest cover in Europe is 30% but we are at a pathetic 11%. Previously, the target was to reach 17% by 2030. Now that has been pushed out to 18% by 2045 because the Council for Forest Research and Development, COFORD, said that in order to reach those targets...

Other Questions: Afforestation Programme (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I welcome the fact the Minister of State has acknowledged that point and the need to address this but our approach to this issue needs to be more robust or aggressive. We are still falling way short. We are completely underutilising public land that could be developed and that would not be useful for other purposes. The McCarthy report suggested that Coillte has 0.5 million acres that...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Overseas Visits (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is quite disgraceful that a free trade deal that could have very adverse impacts for huge numbers of people in agriculture, for workers' rights and for the environment, but which will further bolster the position of big multinationals to sue a state that interferes with its right to profits, will be provisionally applied by the Government without a debate or a vote in the Dáil. It is...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Overseas Visits (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am an ally of Donald Trump on no issue.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Overseas Visits (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Are nuclear weapons not?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Overseas Visits (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 13. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his visit to Canada. [41675/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Are we for the self-determination of people?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Not on the issue of self-determination specifically.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 2. To ask the Taoiseach when Cabinet Committee C, European Union, including Brexit, will be meeting. [40545/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the committee discuss, and does the Taoiseach propose that it discuss in advance of the European Council, issuing as a State an unequivocal condemnation of the Spanish state and Mariano Rajoy for the brutal and violent suppression of a democratic exercise in self-determination by the people of Catalonia? Article 1 of the UN Charter and all international law clearly defines...

Order of Business (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It was never off it.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Universal Social Charge Application (3 Oct 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 102. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will consider in his pre-budget deliberations with regard to the USC, the correction of the anomaly that sees pre-1995 public sector pensioners pay the universal social charge on all their income while all other recipients of the State pension are exempt from USC on that portion of their income, resulting in the pre-1995 pensioners being worse off...