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Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (3 Apr 2025)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Many, if not most of the people who broadcast the proceedings in this Dáil who work for Oireachtas TV are on precarious, or "if and when" contracts, where they basically do not get paid if the Dáil or the committees are not sitting during Christmas, during the summer and other breaks. Most of these part-time workers earn approximately €12,000 per year. I could not believe...

Housing Emergency Measures: Motion [Private Members] (2 Apr 2025)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is obvious the Government does not want to solve the housing crisis. It has dropped the pretence. It has no targets, it is curtailing the tenant in situ scheme, it has always resisted rent controls and its homelessness figures continue to rise. It does absolutely nothing about it. It does not want to stop the flow into homelessness. It is planning to remove even the minimal rent...

Driver Test Waiting Times: Motion [Private Members] (25 Feb 2025)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Daly for bringing this motion forward, which we are happy to support. I heard somebody say Tallaght was the worst in terms of the waiting list. I was reported in the middle of last year that Dún Laoghaire was the worst, so we are competing for that accolade. Certainly, waiting times for tests and resits in Dún Laoghaire are shockingly bad. They...

Provision of Special Education: Motion [Private Members] (18 Feb 2025)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion and I thank the parents who have come in and who are devoted to their children and to vindicating their children's rights. We are talking about their rights, both under Irish law to education and under the UNCRPD to equality and to be able to participate fully in society on an equal basis to every other child. The Government is failing children...

Mental Health: Statements (18 Feb 2025)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We are not allowed use the word "lies" in here, so instead we will have to say the Government is systematically misleading people about why we have a recruitment and retention crisis in our health services in general and, specifically, in our mental health services. It fails to acknowledge the reason we cannot recruit or are not recruiting the staff we need - psychologists, psychiatrists,...

Government’s Response to Storm Éowyn: Statements (Resumed) (6 Feb 2025)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Thankfully, much of Dublin escaped the worst ravages of Storm Éowyn but I know that, across the country, tens of thousands of people suffered extreme hardship as a result of water and power outages. The lack of resilience of our key infrastructure in those areas of water and power exposed extreme vulnerabilities in our ability to respond to emergency situations. Some, including some in...

Appropriation Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Nov 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not want to delay this Bill any further. I understand it needs to be passed notwithstanding the debates we might have about it. It is a little bit odd that anybody would oppose it because this is money we have to have spent to keep the show on the road. We might want to spend it differently or spend more but we need this money to cover the costs of public services and so on that...

Appropriation Bill 2024: Second Stage (6 Nov 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...each year. As I understand it, it is the final authorisation of the expenditure of money throughout the year and of money that will be carried over that has not been spent. It is an opportunity to dwell a little bit on the issue of the expenditure of the enormous amount of public money totalling €86 billion. It is the public's money and it is an extraordinary fact, with this...

Finance Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Nov 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----on the commitment to do so. People Before Profit has been very consistent in its view on the USC since entering this Dáil in 2011, which is that it was a grossly unfair austerity imposition on working people to pay for the crimes of the bankers and property developers who put this country over a cliff in 2008. Workers got it in the neck and were asked to pay for the crimes of...

Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: From the Seanad (23 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am happy enough to support this extra capital going towards the LDA, but I would rather that the LDA were something other than what it is. We have argued for some time it should be a fully fledged State construction company. That is the only way we will reach the level of output of social and affordable housing necessary to address the absolutely dire housing crisis we are facing. The...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (23 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: "Laya profits soar to €36.55 million". That was a headline in the newspapers earlier this year. Its profits were up by €14 million. For AXA, I do not have the figure for its profits, but it had €2 billion coming in from premiums. It has 30% of the Irish market, while Laya has 28%, and I think AXA is now underwriting Laya premiums. This is big business and big...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (23 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Earlier I made the point to the Taoiseach that I think games or deceptions are being played with regard to what is happening to recruit the staff we need in various areas of the health service. The Taoiseach did not like it when I spoke about deception. This question is about children. I want to refer the Taoiseach to the figures, which are the HSE's figures and not mine. If we ask...

Public Health Service Staffing: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (23 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...motion. This debate is about whether we have safe and adequate staffing levels in our hospitals and health services, and whether the pay and numbers strategy is an embargo by another name to prevent the recruitment necessary to reach the safe and adequate staffing levels required to ensure patient safety and provide treatment for the patients who require it. We have a sort of mystery...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...a windfall of €13 billion plus in Apple tax money that it did not want because it would have preferred that Apple, a staggeringly wealthy and profitable company, would have had it instead but it was forced to take this €13 billion from the company. This gave the Government an extraordinary amount, yet ordinary workers and the very least well-off in our society will just...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Policy (15 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I think it would be fair to describe the Cherrywood development as a flagship development for Ireland presenting itself as a place where there is quality of life, there is the housing we need and where you have all the amenities, facilities, infrastructure and so on necessary for a place where people can live and work. It is the biggest residential development in the country. I do not like...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Child Poverty (15 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to bring to the Taoiseach's attention the shocking case of a new social housing development, St. Germaine, in Ballybrack in my area. It is in the hands of Co-operative Housing Ireland, an AHB, and was built by a developer called Kavco. It was finished at the end of last year and there are 31 units with many families. I met people the other day and, while they were delighted that,...

Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (8 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: .... This way of proceeding is wrong. As my party's spokesperson on housing, I consider myself fairly clued in and focused on the issues. This legislation is not being given adequate scrutiny is to what precisely it does. That is a problem and a matter of concern to me. I listened to what the Minister said earlier about the Bill and I will listen to what the Minister of State says at the...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (2 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: ...Taoiseach and Tánaiste have lost all interest in the budget. I suspect the wider public have lost interest anyway because they realise through bitter experience it will not make much difference to the real issues that affect their lives. I will not go through an exhaustive list of what is not there or what we would have done instead. People can read our alternative budget...

Healthcare Services in the Mid-West Region: Motion [Private Members] (24 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Good. Fair play to you, Minister. I support the motion. The case of Aoife Johnston, her tragic and unavoidable death, should be a wake-up call for everybody. Something like that should not have happened. It is absolutely tragic and no doubt linked to massive overcrowding and the fact that she was left on a trolley for 13 hours without the medication she needed to save her life. Her...

Disability and Special Needs Provision: Motion [Private Members] (19 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The efforts and programmes the Minister of State spoke about might make some difference. I wish that, instead of me, the parents and teachers of the children in question were here responding to what she said. They are the ones who know how the system is failing their children, despite all the efforts, promises and programmes from the Government. Like Deputy Gino Kenny said, the debates on...