Results 28,861-28,880 of 50,917 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: The gulf between the upper, middle and lower levels is expanding dramatically. We need to improve provision significantly for apprenticeships, both in terms of numbers and regional spread. We need an initiative to give people access to generous support in upskilling.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: We also need comprehensive child care provision, an issue to which I will return.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: A number of half-measures were included in the budget to help the SME sector, but they come nowhere near showing a vision to relieve the pressures felt by the sector and set out a model for its development. Every single target to make credit available to SMEs has been missed. They continue to be squeezed by State-owned banks which are being fattened for a rapid sale. If Ireland is to have...
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: Listening to the speeches of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, Deputy Willie O'Dea reminded me of the dictum, "I can take any amount of criticism as long as I can consider it unqualified praise." This budget is the last throw of the dice by a deeply unpopular Government desperate to be re-elected. It is not a budget to shape Ireland’s future but one to help two parties get...
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: With the greatest respect, we increased it to the highest level in Europe prior to the crash. The clawing back of €300 million through the failure to index tax bands is a significant policy decision. This was not announced yesterday; it is buried in the documentation. The obvious purpose of this was to give space for changes which might win a few more headlines. At the conclusion of...
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: Does the Taoiseach have any idea at all of where they are? They were promised five years ago.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: That is a fantasy.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: We were not up late, actually.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: Will the Government give specific time for discussion of the health Estimates, because there is total confusion in terms of what health has received in this year's budget? The huge supplementary provision of €600 million illustrates the dishonesty that has been at the centre of health Estimates over the past three years. This has caused significant distress in hospitals and led to...
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: However, the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, explicitly denies that. Will the Taoiseach provide Government time for a debate on the health Estimate and on broader health issues, because there is chaos and a lack of morale in the system? On the programme for Government legislative commitments on housing and distressed mortgages, it is interesting that it was written into the...
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: That figure was reduced to €88 million last year.
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: No, it is not.
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: It is a crisis, not a challenge. It is an emergency now, not in 2020.
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Government must increase the rent supplement to provide for this to happen.
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: Yesterday's budget gave a very strong indication that the Government has no concept, or sense, of the urgency of the homeless crisis in our society. The Government is not possessed of any sense of urgency in relation to it, as eloquently articulated yesterday evening by Fr. Peter McVerry in his reaction to the lack of any action in the budget on this matter. It is interesting to note that...
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: With the greatest respect-----
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach said that he did not interfere but the problem has got dramatically worse.
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: The number of children who are homeless has doubled since October 2014. The same applies to the number of families in emergency accommodation. That is the point. He has done nothing.
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: He has not interfered and it is the absence of interference which is exasperating the problem. The Taoiseach spoke about the rent supplement. A decision has not been made to increase it. He mentioned discretionary powers of welfare officers. In Limerick, only six cases were successful in the past 12 months. The Taoiseach should stop with the fig leaves.
- Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach throws a sop to the poor Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, saying he is working very hard, but he is not.