Results 1-20 of 2,363 for long speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (30 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We are not in a position to determine that right now. I have long enough around to know that in the health sector situations evolve and facilities rarely close. They are either redeployed or used for something else, or they are kept on as they are. Obviously the whole idea of the national children's hospital is to have the best and most appropriate care for children with particular...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (30 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...the council. It has been very effective, with up to 1,800 approvals so far. I will get the most up-to-date figure. The Government appointed the Housing Commission and tasked it with examining long-term housing policy. Of its 83 recommendations, 65 at varying stages of implementation, with some more advanced than others. Comprehensive consideration is being given to the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (30 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...issue that exists. The Cabinet agreed last week to accelerate an assessment of need waiting list initiative through the procurement of private assessments for families who have been waiting for a long time, with about 2,300 assessments of need being funded. There has been an additional allocation of about €11 million. This is to deal specifically with the assessment of need...

Ireland's Recognition of the State of Palestine: Statements (28 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...that we are now beginning to see a clear view emerging among member states that it is simply not credible that the EU-Israel association agreement can remain entirely unaffected by the behaviour of this Israeli Government. As this House is aware, the Government has had a long-standing commitment to recognise the State of Palestine. We committed to doing so as part of a lasting...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Middle East (28 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...has grown from the 51 ‘original Members’ that signed the UN Charter in 1945 to 193 Member States at present. In fact, many States existed, and enjoyed diplomatic relations with other States, long before becoming UN Member States. For example, Switzerland only became a UN Member State in 2002. Indeed Ireland itself only became a member of the UN in 1955. In the time...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Official Engagements (28 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: The role of the Minister of State for International Development and the Diaspora underlines Ireland's long-standing commitment to supporting development programmes that help to bring about positive change in the lives of people around the world, as well as ensuring our continued strong links with Irish communities worldwide. Since the beginning of the 2024, Minister Fleming in his role as...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: First of all, the independent review group, of which Ms Bronagh O'Hanlon was chairperson, did a year-long assessment and investigation of abuse within the Defence Forces. Her report was fairly damning, if we are to be honest. At the time in the House, members of the Opposition were unanimous in saying to me that I must accept the recommendations of the independent review group. In advance...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...is no sense that this is the case. Look at the membership of the body. They are all very capable people who have been at very senior positions in either the public or private sector for quite a long time. They are not the kind of people who will be unduly influenced – or influenced at all – by any one particular civil servant or Secretary General. I say that given their...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin. I know of his long-term commitment to this area. I have looked at the north-east area where there is a multidisciplinary team of psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language across ten primary schools.

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (16 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...to add that the recently concluded pilot Time and Attendance system undertaken by the military authorities, across a number of areas within the Defence Forces, and the follow-on procurement of a long-term electronic solution, will lead to the development of a robust system to record the daily working hours of every member of the Defence Forces. This will be a critical enabler in taking...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (15 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...is a system in place whereby the Passport Service contacts the relevant Superintendent’s Office to verify the details. There is no requirement for the Passport Service to speak to the witnessing Garda as long as the Garda Station can confirm the record of the form being witnessed in the station logbook. The Passport Service offers overtime, on a voluntary basis, to staff when...

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings: Motion [Private Members] (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...James Mitchell at Glenanne played a significant part in the preparation for the attacks. In both cases, the reports produced were clear that they were hampered in providing a fuller picture, including on long-standing questions on whether a role was played by British security forces before or after the attacks, by the lack of access to original documents held by the British Government....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...humanitarian law, international development aid, climate security, women, peace and conflict. We have fairly distinct positions and when referencing that, I might have gone on for too long for Deputy Carthy in respect of what we are doing in the Middle East. I was endeavouring to make the point that it takes a persistent and consistent focus and approach to build up credibility so that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...are pro-Palestine's right to self-determination, however, we do not allow ourselves to be partisan for the sake of it. We believe in basic principles and they should be applied. There has been a long-standing support in Ireland for Palestinian self-determination. That was a view held in Israel at one stage, that there would be a two-state solution. However, in the last decade or so,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...- we highlighted the importance of that strand to any peace process. In the context of military and defence spending, we are coming from a low base. Given the strength of our GDP, it will be a long time before we get to 2%. That is because our GDP is quite artificial in one sense. However, we can only increase in line with our capacity to absorb. We are building up the level of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We have taken action. The Deputy is being very disingenuous. We have taken action long before this war and during it. We were one of the first to support the NGOs that Israel had, in our view, wrongly labelled as supporters of terrorism. We continued our support for those NGOs, which are human rights organisations, with finance. We met them. I already instanced the UNRWA situation and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and for his long-term commitment in respect of it. He has consistently raised it in the House on a number of occasions. The Government continues to support the roll-out of a national service for long Covid. In 2022, about €2.2 million was provided for the implementation of the model of care. That trebled to €6.6 million in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Middle East (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Come on. The Deputy's solution fails in any shape or form to deal with the complexity of the situation. It is not as simple as he has put forward at all. It is a long history, as the Deputy correctly pointed out. It is not as simple as recognising one state and de-recognising another and attempting to dismantle it. That would cause untold further violence and upheaval. In our view,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Middle East (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We never said it was just one strand. It is interesting that Deputy Boyd Barrett argued trenchantly for this for a long time but, once there was the prospect of it happening, he dismissed it, said it was not really that significant and asked whether we could move on now. His asserted solution fails to understand the complexity of the situation, for example, the Arab population within Israel...