Results 19,001-19,020 of 26,924 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I apologise, but I was not here.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am running out of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It probably comes back to what I said earlier - my beef with how banking works here has more to do with the Government and its policies. Mr. Boucher made an interesting comparison between the Europe-Irish and Europe models. It bears more discussion, but, unfortunately, we do not have the time to do so. I wish to ask about two related matters. First, there is the matter of repossessions,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does Mr. Boucher accept that his bank is contributing to the problem? Does he agree with me that this is happening and that banks are profiteering from it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not familiar with that component of the Nyberg report and how it was derived. It is most important that it be decided by income and that banks not be glorified pawnbrokers. Ultimately, it is a judgment call on the capacity of the customer in terms of income. The security is used to repay the bank in a case of default. It is the cashflow of the customer that is judged, whether it be a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Bank of Ireland (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Many questions I have about the banking sector are directed more to the Government than to individual banks. However, I have a few questions for Mr. Boucher. Does he accept the proposition that his bank, along with others but his would be at the top of the league table, is profiteering in terms of the interest rates it is charging on loans compared to its European counterparts? This was...

European Council Meeting: Statements (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A stark position was outlined by the head of the European Central Bank, Mr. Mario Draghi. He referred to the European economy as being on the floor and that it needed a massive investment programme in order to stimulate real economic growth. Notwithstanding the fact that the Government is blowing its own trumpet about successes, there will be no sustained recovery if the European economy...

European Council Meeting: Statements (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: One of the most popular slogans chanted by the 200,000 people who took to the streets at the weekend was: "Enda Kenny in your ivory tower, this is called people power." As the Labour Party in the Seanad rebels against the Government over a referendum on Irish Water and as a crisis is gripping the Government in the face of a massive popular rebellion against the hated water tax, should the...

Order of Business (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The general election might be on the same day.

Finance Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is not what we are talking about.

Finance Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Can Deputy Twomey show me a nurse earning more than €100,000?

Finance Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Last week, before the protests that took place at the weekend, the Minister for Finance was reported as suggesting they would be the last rally of the anti-water charges movement. He could not have been more wrong. The Irish revolution for the 21st century has begun. The people, as they rise up off their knees against six years of cruel injustice and unfairness, will not be lying down...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Corporation Tax Regime (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The double Irish was a massive tax avoidance scheme by the multinationals which centred, to a large extent, on the way in which they could charge for the intellectual property rights of subsidiary companies which were tax resident nowhere and, consequently, avoid paying billions of euro in tax. Is the patent box not exactly the same because it centres on intellectual property? It is about...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Corporation Tax Regime (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The workers who work in these companies pay tax in the region of 30% to 35%, but, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the people who own these companies pay tax at 2% on their enormous profits. Even according to Revenue's figures, they pay an effective rate of approximately 6%. How is it fair that these multinationals pay tax at 2% or 6% when the people who clean the floors in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Corporation Tax Regime (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 5. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide details of the proposed knowledge box tax scheme being worked on by his Department; and if he will confirm reports that the Government is consulting leading multinationals based here on the design of the proposed new scheme and the way he plans to ensure the knowledge box does not become another mechanism for tax avoidance by major...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Corporation Tax Regime (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Last week, while low and middle income families were preparing to get out on the streets to protest against the unjust water charges, it was reported that the Department of Finance was working with multinational companies to discuss the patent box proposal. Is it true that it was clearly indicated that the Department was reassuring multinational companies that no further tax burden would be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Measures (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 3. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to make changes to the budget 2015 proposals, particularly in view of the considerable public outrage concerning the cumulative impact of direct and indirect taxes on low- and middle-income families imposed over recent years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42042/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Measures (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The weekend's protests were not the result of communication problems; they were really an elemental outburst of rage, not only against water charges but also against six years of unfairness, stealth taxes and cuts. Much of the anger is centred on the cumulative impact not only of direct taxation but also of indirect taxation and charges. If the Government is listening to what the people...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Measures (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That response really demonstrates how the Minister just does not get it. He does not understand why people went out on the streets at the weekend. I will just throw his own figures back at him. Somebody earning €17,000, as mentioned by the Minister, got €173 back in the budget. Somebody earning €120,000 got €687 back, according to the budget document. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Measures (5 Nov 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This is the problem with statistics. The Minister knows what they say about statistics. It just does not reflect the human reality that people are facing. That is what was expressed at the weekend. The OECD found last week that Ireland, out of 41 countries in the OECD, was 37th, or near the bottom of the league table, in terms of child poverty. Since 2008, child poverty has increased...