Results 16,521-16,540 of 50,453 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: Unfortunately, the Covid restrictions-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate the Deputy raising this very important matter. I also appreciate that the Deputy supports the broad thrust of the policy and its underpinning rationale. We are seven months away from the introduction of minimum unit pricing, which will happen next January, and I appeal to the Northern Ireland Executive, all political parties in the North and anyone with influence on those...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: We will do that. As I stated, I appeal to the Northern Ireland Executive on this. We are seven months away from this being implemented. The legislation was passed in 2018 and my understanding is it had all-party agreement at the time. The Northern Ireland Executive should align with this policy and I appeal to the parties to give this serious consideration. It is really designed to help...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has deliberately ignored the substance of the Government's intervention in the housing market. We are on the cusp of the largest social housing building programme, through the allocation of substantial funding on unprecedented scale. That is a reality. The issue will be delivery and getting those houses built through the local authorities. The authorities must start...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: -----it will need initiatives around affordable housing-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: -----and it will need investment in infrastructure. It will need the provision of State land for affordable housing. Many projects have been objected to on the councils by the colleagues of those on the other side of this House and that has happened because there has been a mix of affordable, social and other forms of housing.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: Opposition parties have taken an absolutist position that it is one type of housing or nothing. In the crisis in which we are currently find ourselves, we must build far more houses than we have been over the last number of years. That will take a variety of initiatives and approaches. I have no objection to any type of approach, by the way. I believe in a very strong social housing...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is wrong and has completely ignored the impact of Covid-19 on house construction in the past 12 months. He completely brushed the latter aside. We were closed down early last year and, unfortunately, early this year. That, however, will not stop us in terms of the funding we have allocated to social housing. It has been allocated to the direct build of social houses, which is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: This has been going on for years. Every time someone comes up with a proposal, Opposition parties feel that they have to find a way to object to it. I wonder why. It just goes on and on. Deputy Boyd Barrett opposes everything. Every item of legislation. It is his way or the highway.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: We are not building enough houses in this country right now. We need all hands on deck in order to get houses built for people. That is what we need, not just the exploitation of the issue for electoral advantage, which is what I see repeatedly, time and time again.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: The crisis is now of such a state-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: -----that one does not have the luxury of continuing to oppose serious housing projects which are shovel ready.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: However, Sinn Féin continues to oppose them and is giving no rational explanation as to why. It is serial objection at this stage.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: What we have now in housing policy is an interventionist approach in terms of the State's role in social housing and the Minister's affordability legislation. These provide for a range of schemes where the State is getting directly involved in building affordable housing, not just social housing. It is through a range of supports, either through the serviced sites fund, the shared equity...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: There is a project developing in Cork on the Boherboy Road, from which the Deputy will get a strong sense of what that affordability is in terms of the range of prices, which are really affordable. The Government is ten months in office. Without question, it has taken a significant interventionist approach in the provision of housing, both social and affordable, along with the necessary...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: I led Fianna Fáil back into government to deal with substantive issues such as housing and to make it a key priority issue because of the needs of people in society for housing as a fundamental right and a basic entitlement. That is why we have spared no effort to comprehensively develop a range of initiatives and funding allocations to match those initiatives to get more houses built....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has seen action. Some €3.3 billion was allocated this year for house construction. The largest social housing programme is under way, as are affordable housing initiatives. The biggest actor in the housing market now is this Government

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: There is no question about that. That is the objective reality in terms of the allocation of funding to a variety of mechanisms, schemes and initiatives. The Government is providing the substantial funding for house construction. We need more than that. That is point I am making, to which the Deputy has not really responded. She does not see a role at all for the private sector and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: When it comes to it, there is no sense of urgency. I have listed some of the projects which Sinn Féin has opposed. If the Deputy were honest about this, she would say, as I am saying to people on my side-----

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Expenditure (12 May 2021)

Micheál Martin: A tabular breakdown of the figures requested by the Deputy is below. Advertising Costs 2021 Since March of 2020, my Department has co-ordinated the communications strategy for the whole-of-government response to the pandemic that ensures maximum clarity for citizens, businesses and our wider community. The strategy ensures that citizens have all of the information they need in relation to...