Results 1-20 of 45 for 5 million speaker:Mick Barry

Road Safety: Statements (17 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: ...made by some Ministers in recent days carefully, I see an attempt to downplay the responsibility of society, the Government and State intervention in this. For example, there is currently a €5 billion backlog of maintenance work on rural roads, that is a legacy of huge cutbacks in the austerity era. In addition, as society emerged from the austerity era, in a Government led by...

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (11 Oct 2023)

Mick Barry: ...who lives at home with their parents. They are the locked-out generation who cannot afford to own or rent. What did they get from the Government yesterday? They got a tax break that increased by €250, provided they get no other State supports on their housing, but landlords get a tax break of €600, rising to €1,000, four times the size of the increase for the young...

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Budget Statement 2024 (10 Oct 2023)

Mick Barry: ...looks to me like the Minister, Deputy McGrath, might be the George Bush Snr. of Irish politics because here was a real opportunity. Even if we do not think that budget surpluses will add up to €65 million over the next four years, even if we estimate conservatively that the figure might end up being somewhere between €40 billion and €50 billion, here was an...

Mortgage Interest Relief: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (20 Sep 2023)

Mick Barry: There have been ten ECB interest hikes. It has gone from 0% to 4.5%. Before this latest increase, some 20% of mortgage holders are estimated to lose €3,000 this year. A further 20% are estimated to lose €5,700 a year. Mortgage holders are being put on a rack and stretched. At the same time the banks make combined profits of more than €5 billion. This Government has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Debt Write-down and Debt Resolution Policies: Allied Irish Banks (2 Mar 2023)

Mick Barry: ...put forward by the representatives of AIB. If it is the case there is consistency right down the line, then there is still a bias against ordinary people. As the old saying goes, "If you owe €5,000 and you can't pay it back, you've got a problem. But if you owe €5 million and you can't pay it back, it is the bank that has the problem." Despite the fact no rules of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)

Mick Barry: ...apartments. Nobody is in a position to say what the final figure will be but between mica and pyrite, even before the full bill for the apartment defects is finalised, it will be well over the €5 billion mark. The question arises of who pays for that. We are being told that the 5% contribution will amount to €32 million. Let us suppose that not a penny of that...

Domestic Electricity and Gas Disconnections: Motion [Private Members] (18 Oct 2022)

Mick Barry: ...that people should engage with their energy providers. One energy provider, Electric Ireland, came before an Oireachtas joint committee and informed its members that it had a hardship fund of €3 million. The entity was roundly criticised, and rightly so, for having such a relatively small sum in that fund. How much money do the private energy companies have in their hardship...

Financial Resolutions 2022 - Budget Statement 2023 (27 Sep 2022)

Mick Barry: ...the Minister, that the budget does not fully protect people from the ravages of inflation and does not come anywhere near to protecting people from it. A single person with no children earning €25,000, €30,000 or €35,000 a year will benefit from the tax changes introduced in the budget by approximately €4 per week, give or take. They will receive the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Apr 2022)

Mick Barry: ...What can the Government do about the cost-of-living crisis? I will tell the Taoiseach four things that can be done here and now. First, the Government can tell the ESB, which is a State-owned company, that 25% increases are just not on. This company made nearly €700 million profit last year. Tell the ESB it can break even this year - no more, no less - and that the profit...

National Minimum Wage: Motion [Private Members] (9 Feb 2022)

Mick Barry: I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes: — the latest increase of the minimum wage from €10.20 to €10.50 an hour is a 2.9 per cent increase, and is well below the rate of inflation representing a de facto pay cut for the lowest paid workers in the State; — the minimum wage rate for those aged under 20 and those on training programmes is less than the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (1 Dec 2021)

Mick Barry: .... They suffer blow after blow after blow. This morning, there were two more. SSE Airtricity hiked its gas and electricity prices by 9% while Pinergy hiked its by 19%. These are the 34th and 35th energy price hikes, the 34th and 35th financial body blows from energy companies, in this year alone. For the ordinary householder, this is a hit of approximately €700 to €800...

Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Mick Barry: ...facilities. Anti-sexual violence education programmes, including programmes for sex offenders, are inadequately resourced. In the budget that the Government brought forward last month, €20 million was set aside for domestic violence support services and €5 million for sexual violence prevention and protection, a total of €25 million, and the same budget provided...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Nov 2021)

Mick Barry: ...subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. They saw Jeff Bezos, the rocket man, pledge $2 billion to protect the environment. Yet, in one single year, this man's company, Amazon, emitted 44.4 million metric tonnes of CO2, more than the annual emissions of two thirds of the countries in the world. Mr. Bezos is typical of the men who lead the 100 corporations responsible for 71% of global...

Financial Resolutions 2021 - Budget Statement 2022 (12 Oct 2021)

Mick Barry: ...gave a few crumbs from the table but the rich will stay rich and the poor will stay poor. Many will die preventable deaths frozen in their homes this winter. Let us start with that. An extra €5 on the fuel allowance, which is payable for 28 weeks, means a total increase of €140. We know that, because of market madness, energy costs are due to rise very sharply. They are...

Energy Prices: Motion [Private Members] (6 Oct 2021)

Mick Barry: ...time, not comparable periods in terms of temperature and cold weather, and seeing how many extra deaths occur. The numbers go up and down in any given year, but they generally tend to be between 1,500 and 2,000. Think about that. It is shocking. Among women, there tend to be more deaths as a result of respiratory issues and among men there tend to be more deaths as a result of...

National Maternity Hospital: Motion [Private Members] (23 Jun 2021)

Mick Barry: .... Vincent's Hospital moved to Elm Park in 1970. Did funds from the illegal adoption racket help to fund the arrangements at that location? The Sisters of Charity owe the State redress money of €5 million, which is a paltry amount, given the crimes the order is linked with from the past. I stand to be corrected but the latest information I could obtain indicates less than half of...

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (29 Apr 2021)

Mick Barry: ..., in this country data centres and other large users are expected to account for 27% of Irish energy demand by 2028. Ireland is fast becoming Europe's data centre capital. There are currently 54 such centres, with planning permission in place for a further 31. They all require high levels of energy to power and cool machines. It is estimated by the Irish Academy of Engineering that...

Residential Tenancies Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Mar 2021)

Mick Barry: An Bord Pleanála has given the green light to and granted planning permission for Ireland's tallest building. At 140 m, the five-star hotel will have 34 stories. It is a €150 million development at Custom House Quay. Once upon a time the land at Custom House Quay was publicly owned and this project shows clearly why we should keep publicly owned land in public ownership. This...

Young People and Access to Further and Higher Education: Motion [Private Members] (11 Mar 2021)

Mick Barry: ...facts contradict what he is saying. According to Universitas 21, which measures government expenditure on third level education as a percentage of gross domestic product, Ireland was 46th of 50 countries measured recently, which is a fall of 29 places since 2017. According to Mr. Jim Miley, director general of the Irish Universities Association, State expenditure per third level...

Impact of Covid-19 Restrictions: Motion [Private Members] (16 Dec 2020)

Mick Barry: ...in the action they can take because of the Covid restrictions despite the fact their company used Covid as a cover to sack them by email, despite the fact they were forced to picket in a level 5 lockdown and despite the fact their campaign has been a litmus test for how workers are treated in a period of Covid. I want to make some brief points. The workers demand was for two plus two....