Results 31,381-31,400 of 50,917 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: Deputy O'Dowd described the setting up of Irish Water as an "unmitigated disaster". Unless the Government stops all of this now, we will have more of the same into the future.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: It is not that.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: I would scrap the whole thing. It is being done for the sake of €100 million. Nobody has ever witnessed this before. On the one hand, a bill will issue for €260, and on the other, a water conservation cheque worth €100 will be sent. It is risible.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: Less than a year ago the Government was pushing through legislation with claims that it would herald a new and positive era for water services. The speeches we are now hearing were last heard a year ago. Speaker after speaker from the Government benches hailed their visionary leadership and claimed that everything would be transparent and fair and earn public confidence. Instead, however,...
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: It is a very serious issue.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: No amount of camouflage will take away from the reality that €500 million is being spent on contracts that we cannot escape. There is no transparency around this, because commercial sensitivity is being used as a cover. If the Government is serious about transparency, can we see the amount for which it is on the hook in regard to water meter contracts? The charge is capped until 2019.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: That is no answer to this issue.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: It is no answer to the fundamental point I am making about €500 million. We are also paying for the construction of a billing infrastructure which is not needed. We have a regulator that will not be regulating. What was the role of the regulator in all of this over the last month? The regulator was not even mentioned in the newest iteration. The charge on which the Government...
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: That was always going to be the case.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: Do not talk nonsense.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: For the tenth time we are looking at Government proposals on this issue, so we have been looking at them time and again. For over six months the Government has been saying it understands the scale of public anger about Irish Water and water charges. There have been near-constant meetings of the Cabinet and Cabinet sub-committees to find a way off the hook. This issue was central to a...
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: That has nothing to do with Irish Water.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: He is making it up as he goes along.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: The Acting Chairman should calm down.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: It is unbelievable the Minister has left the Chamber. We had the same on budget day. There has been a lot of talk about upholding and underpinning parliamentary democracy, but what the Minister has done is contemptuous of the House. I appeal to Ministers opposite and the Chief Whip in particular to bring the Minister back into the House. Pending this, I propose that the debate be adjourned.
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: Will the Leas-Cheann Comhairle agree to a suspension in order to protect the integrity and dignity of the House? We will not put up with what is happening. 4 o’clock The least the Leas-Cheann Comhairle should do is to suspend the sitting in order to protect the integrity and dignity of the House. Otherwise, I do not think we are going to hang around here too much longer to be...
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: Is there a copy of the motion?
- Water Sector Reforms: Motion (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: It is farcical that the content of the motion is not before the Members of the House before the debate starts. The entire lead-up to the debate was farcical in the sense that there was no presentation of any details to other Members of the House which would inform their contributions to the debate, other than what has been leaked to the media. To say we do not have the motion before us, as...
- Leaders' Questions (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: There have been.
- Leaders' Questions (19 Nov 2014)
Micheál Martin: It panicked a little also.