Results 17,281-17,300 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A lot of the bases have been covered. If I understand correctly, it is up to the Government to make decisions on some of the more contentious issues such as the level of the direct provision payment and the right to work. I think I am right to say that Ms Harrington is not in a position to shed much more light on those matters. People who have been there for more than six months - many...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, except such people have been in a situation often for a lot longer or simply have not had that opportunity. However, it is obviously a decision for the Government as to whether it will grant such people credits based on how long they had been in direct provision and denied the right to work. Is it possible for the witnesses to provide members with the guidelines the Department gives...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If possible, I have a few more questions on this theme when we resume. Are members returning or not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to examine issue of flexibility a little further. Before we suspended for the vote, it was said that the direction given to community welfare officers was to take rents in the area into consideration in terms of deciding what constituted a reasonable rent before breaching the rent allowance cap. Is it possible to see a copy of the memo? Could it be sent to the committee? I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Could Ms Harrington also send the memos?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If one takes my area, and I am sure it is true also of other areas, it is virtually impossible for somebody who lives in Dún Laoghaire to find somewhere to rent that takes rent supplement. I accept that most people want to stay in the area in which they are living and where their children go to school. One might get one or two places available and several hundred people in a month...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I refer to people who are trying to get rent supplement elsewhere.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To simplify my question, what will happen, if let us say one is in a direct provision centre in Dún Laoghaire and then one tries to get rent allowance in Bray? Will one be told by the community welfare officer in Bray that because the person is not on the Wicklow list, he or she cannot get rent allowance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is the point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If one is not on the list, one cannot get rent allowance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Sure. I understand that, except that the condition under which one gets the rent allowance is that one is on the list in that administrative area. Is that right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This is an issue of joined-up thinking between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the local authorities and the Department of Social Protection. Going by my experience, which is not specifically with direct provision, I would anticipate that this could become an issue for people who have got their status and are trying to exit direct provision and find rental...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, I have made the point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In order to get the rent allowance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Just so I am absolutely clear on this, there is no legal requirement.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Direct Provision: Department of Social Protection (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: So as long as they are on a local authority list, they can apply.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As long as it is not ideological.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On what basis?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am utterly opposed to the knowledge development box. I do not accept the Minister of State's assurances that this is not just replacing the double Irish tax scam with a new tax scam. I think that is exactly what the Government is doing. Having been exposed very badly with the double Irish, the Government in collusion with the multinationals has engineered a new tax scam, which is the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2015)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This is about the knowledge development box.