Results 3,701-3,720 of 50,134 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I recall Deputy Cronin's horror at the outcome of the IRG's report when it was published. I met the chair of the independent review group into the allegations that were made. We met the judge and a number of members who were absolutely adamant that it be external to the Defence Forces. This is an external oversight body over the Defence Forces, not necessarily over the Department. That is...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: Yes. Not just the Chief of Staff-----
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I will.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: Deputy Carthy stated, and I might have mentioned it earlier, that this is not a competition between the Defence Forces and the Department.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: But there is a sense of it. Do not worry. It is being suggested. Maybe not here, but it is in the background and in the ether. We all live in the real world and that is there. Deputy Carthy did kind of suggest it just now. What I am trying to say is that this is not about Exchequer resources. It is about cultural transformation of our Defence Forces as defined by the independent...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: Resourcing is not the issue with the Defence Forces. Let us call a spade a spade. If the Deputy goes through that report, he will see that it is not an issue of resourcing. We need to be clear what we are dealing with here, as identified by the independent review group. I look back on the Dáil debate prior to the publication of the report. All the pressure on me was to make sure I...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I did. We have gone through all of them.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: We have. That is in the statutory tribunal. The issue with toxic chemicals in Baldonnell is covered by the terms of reference of the tribunal. We have followed through on all of the recommendations. Everyone was lambasting me in advance-----
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: -----and asking whether I would accept the recommendations. When the report was published, I was again asked if I would accept them and I said that I would. I have done so, including this particular one. What I am trying to get across is that the fundamental purpose of the external oversight body is to try to deal with the issues that were raised by the independent review group. It is...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I move amendment No. 14: In page 26, line 42, to delete "In this Schedule" and substitute "In this Schedule,".
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: We discussed this earlier in another context. The suite of amendments to the Defence Act 1997 in section 23 provides a statutory basis for the Minister for Defence to authorise Permanent Defence Force representative associations to associate with the Irish Congress for Trade Unions. The amendments proposed by the Deputies would remove the mechanism by which associate membership of ICTU...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: The context is progress. For the first time ever Defence Forces representatives-----
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: So was mine. Well, not an official but a shop steward.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: That is why my father founded an alternative union. He was a founding member of the National Busmen's Union. The Deputy will understand they wanted more and they did not think they were getting enough in the existing trade union. Someone else told me they were active people who wanted to keep active but that is a different question. The point I am trying to make, all things in a more...
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: But we have to give effect to it.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I will have a look at it for Report Stage.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: That is no longer part of the Bill. I have withdrawn it. I wrote to the committee on this matter.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I withdrew it. I basically took on board what people were saying in respect of the military judges and prosecutors.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I will have a look at it and maybe I will come back to the Deputy on Report Stage. It is only technical and I do not have issues with it.
- Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)
Micheál Martin: I thank the Cathaoirleach and the members of the committee. I thought that was an interesting discussion. There is room for reflection. I thank the committee very much indeed.