Richard Boyd Barrett

Some testy exchanges yesterday between the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou MacDonald and looking at some of the comments here that she was accusing the government of wanting to move away from peacekeeping and towards military engagement and military adventurism.

Catherine, what can you say, I suppose, to allay her fears and the concerns of Richard Boyd Barrett and others on that front?

Well, very simply, to repeat what I've already said, the triple lock is a legal mechanism that allows for us, that allows for the government and the country to decide how to deploy peacekeeping troops abroad.

That is it.

Because this idea that we're on a war footing is completely false and completely baseless.

This is a decision about who decides where Irish peacekeeping troops are deployed.

Richard Boyd Barrett? First of all, I

honestly don't know what Catherine is talking about.

Because obviously you will have politicians who dress in a particular way.

You won't find Richard Boyd Barrett in a formal suit and shirt and tie, whereas you will find a minister whether from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in precisely that kind of outfit.

People wear what they want to use to send a signal to the people that matter to them.

And the problem is when that cuts across the non-partisan position of the broadcaster.

So, I think that's a really serious figure.

Well, we had Richard Boyd Barrett on last week who was saying that people for profit have made a provision for 3 billion in what he said was their cost of proposals.

Well, Sinn Féin had no provision in their budget, and I think the Labour Party had even less than 1.1, uh, billion.

So, you know, I think, you know, uh, uh, in terms of, like, a practical, realistic solution, I think Minister Chambers is putting that forward.

I can disagree with the governance of, uh, the current government in the Republic of Ireland, but that doesn't lead me to call for the Republic of Ireland to cease to exist as a state or for Israel to cease to exist as a state.

Now, the people, these people f- platform, like Deputy Boyd Barrett stand on their platforms and calls for Israel to cease to exist as a state.

So, so their entire narrative isn't about the welfare of Palestinians.

It's for Israel to cease to exist.

They've yet to sit down and negotiate around a table.

Question is, how are they going to get to that point? Well, we're joined now by Richard Boyd Barrett, People Before Profit TD for Dún Laoghaire and party spokesperson on housing and finance, and Seamus McGrath, Fianna Fáil TD for C- Cork South Central and his party spokesperson on housing.

You're both very welcome to Drive Time.

Um, Richard, how is this impasse gonna be broken?

Okay.

Uh, and I think the unions are right to point that out.

Seamus McGrath, 3.1 billion, says Richard Boyd Barrett.

That'd get them to the table.

Um, I found it very funny that a lot of the TDs were comparing the budget to, uh, the weather.

I think it was, uh, Richard Boyd Barrett, uh, of People Before Profit, he called it a damp squid.

Mm.

Um, and Ivana Bacik, Labour leader, in the Dáil, she was, uh, comparing the budget to the rain, 'cause we were out in the rain that morning-

Pierce Doherty accused the government of being detached from the real life of ordinary workers and their families.

Richard Boyd Barrett said that people should get their placards ready, while Labour's Jed Nash said it was not a budget for those who get up in the morning but one for those who can afford a bloody good lie-in.

The Fiscal Advisory Council, the state's budgetary watchdog, was strongly critical of the budget, warning that it puts the public finances on a worse trajectory while increasing the state's reliance on high-risk corporation tax revenues.

And Garda Síochána is introducing tighter spending controls for major events after a review of the policing operation around last year's Europa League final in Dublin.

So that needs to be looked at again, in my view.

Well, People Before Profit TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, says that as the budget doesn't keep pace with cost of living, in his opinion, it's not good enough.

The government said it was going to be a budget for workers, and they've given less than nothing to workers when you take into account inflation.

So the average worker is getting about 1.5% in tax changes, but their inflation is running at more than 3.5%.