Results 1,041-1,060 of 49,984 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: This is an important matter.
- An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: It seems that in the new order Deputies McDonald and Bacik will dictate who forms the groups in this House.
- An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: We have freedom of association.
- An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: It is a fundamental, basic principle that people are allowed to associate with whom they like. That is the first point. That is being denied here for the first time. I have never seen this before, since I became a Member of Dáil Éireann. There has been a bit of a herd-like attitude to this debate among the Opposition and some commentators. People have not looked at the...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----that the Deputy should just neatly try to bundle cyberattacks and the cost of them into the broader-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----legitimate issue of value for money in public expenditure, which has to be at the core of everything we do.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: I reject that entirely. By the way, I do not accept his analysis of the private sector and accountability. That is a well-worn trope in this House, but, as far as I can see, anyone who looks at the private sector-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----will see that anyone who is ever in difficulty somehow gets sidelined with a huge sweetheart deal in the private sector. That seems to be the norm. The Deputy should not, therefore, try to make a false comparison between private sector accountability and public sector accountability. I have never bought into it or accepted it. What I will accept, though, is that there absolutely has...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: That is legitimate and proper. That is why we have the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts. That is also why we do have the checks and balances. I looked at a list of the codes of practices and various circulars that have issued to every Department and agency. They are all there. We do need better delivery and implementation by people on the ground...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: Either do that or abolish every single agency in the country and we certainly are not going to do that.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: That is what the Deputy is trying to say in here if we take that approach to its logical conclusion.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: That is what the Deputy is saying.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: By the way, through the Chair, I think the Oireachtas needs to reflect on itself as well.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: Behaviour in this House has cost the taxpayer a lot of money as well.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: I saw that programme last week in respect of what happened to Angela Kerins on foot of this House, which cost the taxpayer a lot of money.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: At the outset the Deputy mentioned €800,000 spent by the Oireachtas. That is his responsibility just as much as it is anybody's on the Government side of the House.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: No, I am not.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: No, I am not. It is the Oireachtas. That is the Deputy's responsibility. What has he done about it? We created the commission for the Oireachtas. The Deputy either takes it on board or he does not. That is a matter for the Oireachtas in its entirety. It does not justify it. It was wrong but the Deputy should not try to pin everything on the Government.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: The other point is that this Government was not in government in 2017. This is a small little fact-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----that has passed the Deputy by. We are now responsible for something then. I am not blaming the Government then. It is perfectly normal to say that old equipment needs to be replaced with new equipment. What is inexcusable is that those in the National Gallery at the time decided to procure this without figuring out how they were going to deploy it and what room they were going to put...