Results 681-700 of 51,735 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: He should concentrate on the increases in numbers in the health service. He cannot and should not ignore that because to do so reduces his credibility. He is making good points on one level but he is also using language like "antique" and suggesting that everyone is feeling the hospitals when there are increases in the number of staff year after year. We have invested hugely in increasing...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: On Letterkenny, we did work on Altnagelvin, which helps people in the north west both in cardiology and cancer care, which we invested in.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: That is the Government's intention, commitment and determination to do. The specific issues the Deputy has raised are being examined in considerable detail with a view to enabling Government to have the powers, ultimately, to deal with those particular mechanisms that have been used. We want to make sure that the financial capacity is retained in the country and made available to provide...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: It is intriguing how the Deputy presents the case. In one sentence he says that the Government is going to jack up insurance awards and in another sentence he says that we are dithering. He is apparently urging us to bring clarity but I do not think he is urging us to bring clarity. I think he is urging us to fulfil maybe entirely the implications of the Act so that he can then start...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: I have just said it to the Deputy. It will be laid before the House but there will be no accompanying motion to the House to approve. However, this is something that the Oireachtas in its entirety has to reflect on. There will be implications in that decision for the Personal Injuries Assessment Board because essentially now we have a vacuum here in terms of personal injury awards. There...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: That was the agenda. I know it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: We need, as an Oireachtas, to deal with this more soberly.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: Is oth liom a rá nach bhfuil an Teachta McDonald cruinn leis an eolas atá aici agus leis an méid a dúirt sí ar maidin faoin gceist seo. Táim dearfach go mbeidh an Rialtas ag déanamh gach aon iarracht na leanaí seo a thabhairt isteach chomh tapa agus is féidir linn. Tá-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: ----- roinnt déanta againn ach tá níos mó le déanamh againn. In respect of the Deputy's case, she has moved on now because the earlier assertions were wrong.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: They were fundamentally wrong. While there is no issue with raising questions and so on, the absolute motivation on the Deputy's side all the time seems to be to seek to sow doubt over the bona fides of-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----Government on a fundamental humanitarian question. That is not acceptable. From the very beginning of this war we did everything to get Irish citizens out of Gaza. Our embassies and our diplomats did everything possible to do it. Why does the Deputy think we would try to delay children coming out of Gaza? How dare you make that assertion.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: That is not on my agenda and it is not on the Government's agenda. A Government memo is immaterial. We discussed this on Monday evening - the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach with the Minister for justice. There is no delay in this respect.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very serious issue. I agree with her about the work of the Ryan brothers, in particular, as a catalyst for the decision by the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley, to set up the scoping inquiry which led to the Minister, Deputy Helen McEntee, yesterday bringing to Government proposals for the establishment of a commission of investigation into the handling...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. One of the appalling features of the war on Gaza has been the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent children. The serial killing of children as a result of indiscriminate bombing, attacks and shootings has shocked the world. The scale of injuries suffered by so many children is truly appalling. As a country, we have a strong tradition...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Taoiseach (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: Yes, but we have to say it is going to be done. Putting money to one side to enable us to do that is important. Healthcare costs will be the big one. Ireland's population is getting progressively older. Healthcare costs, combined with elderly care costs and pension costs, will be very significant in the coming decades. The Future Ireland Fund was meant as an opportunity to create...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Taoiseach (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: The ESRI has published evaluations of the potential impacts of various tariff regimes on growth in the Irish economy. It has used GNI and GDP metrics. Much depends on the scale of the tariffs. I have spoken to a significant number of CEOs in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors and they are concerned. President Trump has said that he wants to get manufacturing back to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Taoiseach (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: We need to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Taoiseach (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: Yes, but we also need to look at how we construct services, particularly specialist ones. As I said earlier, I can remember 20 years ago having a fairly serious row with the private provider in Galway, pleading with it not to go ahead with radiation oncology because we had planned to develop radiation oncology in University Hospital Galway. We said that there would not be enough radiation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Taoiseach (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: No, the surgical hub is not part of a deal because there was a commitment in the programme for Government for a surgical hub in the north west, on which the HSE is currently finalising a feasibility study. We cannot interfere in that feasibility study nor am I going to interfere in that feasibility study re the potential north-west hub and a business case will be submitted to the Department...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Taoiseach (9 Jul 2025)

Micheál Martin: Fundamentally, it is our view that we are not planning for a constitutional referendum in the next five years during the term of this Government and we have been clear on that. We have developed a shared island initiative and we have put an extra €1 billion in there. My view is that we would have to build reconciliation and everything is not about a Border poll. I believe in Wolfe...