Results 141-160 of 943 for long speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but it is okay in principle so long as the ongoing costs are not increasing, and they could potentially decrease. Another thing suggested to us as a simple measure, which would be one-off and could be done quite cheaply, is to insulate for free everybody's attics. It would be basic insulation. A major amount of energy is being lost just through people's roofs. We do not have to do...

Forestry: Statements (24 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...genuinely have to support them, engage with them and listen to them. Simultaneously, Coillte's fundamental mandate has to change from the one it is currently operating. I suspect, sadly, that we are still a long way from that.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh – Priority Questions: School Accommodation (24 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...I just outlined. One would have thought people would know how to meet these sorts of basic conditions, or "green conditions" as they were described to me. We must also remember that this is a long saga. The school was originally promised a site at Newtownpark Avenue. Then, there was a long battle to get another site. We had to have council land that had been originally zoned for...

Finance Bill 2022: Report Stage (23 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...precarious these companies have now shown themselves to be, surely now is the time to get in and get what we can off them from a tax point of view to invest in developing industry and jobs that will actually be sustainable in the long term.

Finance Bill 2022: Report Stage (23 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...give them an answer but at present the Government is saying it does not have an answer. Give us an answer. Our answer is to control the rents and stop the evictions now. Even if the Minister will not do it, in the long term he should intervene to stop people being made homeless by making rents affordable and stopping people being evicted.

Social Welfare Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (23 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...Minister's Department. If a relatively small increase were made to the lower rate of employer PRSI and to the higher rate of employer PRSI for the highest earners, we could raise €2.3 billion. That would go a long way to redistributing some of the wealth in this country to alleviate poverty and energy poverty in particular. The Minister will be aware of a study that suggests...

Social Welfare Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (23 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...on pensions or social welfare is that they will be worse off next year than they were this year. This is the fundamental fact. As much as the Government may try and bedazzle people with a long list of measures it has taken to try to mitigate the absolutely diabolical cost-of-living and housing crisis that people face, this is the fact. The official rate of inflation is running at 8.1%...

Declaration of a Housing Emergency: Motion [Private Members] (22 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...it shortly. The letter states: We are being evicted. I am 55 years living in my home. My parents are living in it since 1958. They are since deceased. I was led to believe all my life we were safe as long as we were lifelong tenants. When we were in a position to buy our home we were told it was not for sale. The woman that is now selling it does not even know me or my family. I...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...of anybody who says, for example, that the scaffolding is a bit unsafe and something needs to be done about it. In that scenario the person who mentions that is fired. If someone argues with the producer or says people are working unsafe or too long hours they are fired and they will not be employed again. There is nothing to protect people against this stuff. Whether the Minister...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have a question going back a long way. Like Deputy Doherty, we have questioned section 110 and how it allows some of these companies to reduce their tax liability. Are there figures available for the amount of tax forgone in respect of section 110?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...of them out, which is why those properties are empty. One thing that is going on there is that throughout all that period, there were very slow refurbishment works going on. These refurbishment works have been going on for as long as those places have been empty - since they drove the tenants out with threats of evictions and so on that just eventually led the tenants to give up and go....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...sure it works. We have to drive those vacant properties back into use as a matter of urgency. Whatever about debates on whether Housing for All is adequate, I think we all accept that we are a long way from where we need to be. We need to get to where we want to go with regard to addressing this housing crisis as quickly as possible. I ask the Minister to seriously consider this....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...about that, all the landlords will exit the market. We hear this from the Government as well. It is a hopeless situation. You cannot win. We had better grasp that. The only medium- to long-term solution is the State, on a massive scale, ramping up its own provision of social and affordable housing, which is not dictated by market conditions or profitability but ipurely by the need...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...should be set at 2% of their accumulated wealth, less an allowance of €1 million for a family home. In other words, this is a wealth tax that is directed at the very richest and not at family homes. We have long campaigned for such a wealth tax. Our proposal is very similar to that put forward by Oxfam in its report. It is not exactly the same but is very similar to Oxfam's...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Quite genuinely, I am long since past just wanting solutions for people who are in those situations, experiencing the trauma and hardship I have described. I could go on listing the examples I am dealing with now for many hours. The list of equally horrendous cases is endless. The misery is endless. Notwithstanding political debate and all that, I just want to see solutions because this...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...forward, is to go to the European Commission because that is where it will have to go if we do not start to meet these objectives. The evidence that it is not meeting those objectives involves quite a long saga. For me, it began in 2018, when representatives of the film industry groups such as Screen Producers Ireland and the body now known as Screen Ireland appeared before the then...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Bus Services (10 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...a race to the bottom and Go-Ahead Ireland is the worst offender. It haemorrhaged bus drivers over the last year because pay and, particularly, conditions, including lack of work-life balance and long shifts, were so bad. That is also causing problems for Dublin Bus. When Dublin Bus workers rejected by 85% an attempt to further deteriorate their conditions, work-life balance and shifts,...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...much anger among ordinary workers, because they are still paying what is, in effect, an austerity tax. It is our view, therefore, that the USC should go for those earning less than €100,000 annually. We have long held this position. We do believe that we must pay for these things. We are very financially prudent on the socialist left and we believe that if something is going to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...and greed, can just decide that thousands of people are going to lose their jobs. That is the price we pay for letting these companies get that rich and for whole economies to be dependent on them. There is a long-term price to be paid, as well as the growing and gross inequality in the distribution of the world's wealth. Unless that is addressed in a serious way, there will be far more...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have never accepted the argument about the independence of NAMA. The mandate of NAMA was set by Government and by legislation and Government can change that mandate. On other matters, I long thought it should change that mandate but this issue is a very big one and everybody acknowledges that. It is not certain precisely how we would go about giving redress to people; it could be through...