Results 1,641-1,660 of 50,064 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: I had the good grace to let the Deputy speak but she does not have the good grace to allow me to speak. I am a product of the Fianna Fáil-Donogh O’Malley revolution of free education.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: I participated in it. It was not “God help us” because it brought on a lot of us. It gave me a passion for education. That is why I became Minister for Education, and to make sure every child in this country had an opportunity to participate in education. I do not trade figures across the House. When I mentioned school completion, I mentioned it because I took part in...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: It is because it matters to me. It is why I am in politics. The Deputy does not have a monopoly on care or compassion on her side of the House. Where she fails is in her understanding. She declared she is a socialist and she is entitled to be, but she has never embraced the Irish economic model that has created enterprise and the opportunity for people to grow and develop in this country....
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: I believe the Deputy and others want to bring down that economic model and want to destroy enterprise in this country, which would make more people unemployed, create more poverty and make us all much poorer.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising what is the most significant social issue of our generation. This Government, notwithstanding Covid-19, has made very significant progress and initiated a range of actions and initiatives on social and affordable homes of different types and supports for first-time buyers. A total of 125,000 new homes have been built since 2020, notwithstanding the lockdowns....
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: The Deputy has painted a picture that, I would argue, does not represent the very significant progress that has been made on house building in the past four years. Supply is the key to the cost question-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: I did not interrupt anybody. I would also make the point that the Social Democrats voted against the Affordable Housing Act. The Deputy might understand why we sometimes feel there is a terrible disconnect between what social democratic parties and others articulate about housing in this House when, in practice, outside of the House they do different things. In here, they opposed the...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: -----have voted against housing developments such as Ballymastone in north County Dublin-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: -----where 1,200 social, affordable, cost-rental, affordable purchase and private homes are now, thankfully, under construction.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: The Social Democrats opposed that scheme. That is why people do feel, genuinely, that there is a disconnect of the sort Deputy Cairns spoke about, between her party’s actions on the ground and its delivery.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: On the vacancy issue, the initiatives of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, relating to grants for derelict and vacant homes have been the most effective way of dealing with dereliction. I do not believe you can tax your way to housing supply.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: I have not seen Deputy Cairns's blueprint for housing. She has been here for four and a half years and her party has not produced any blueprint for housing. She has proposed no solutions other than, I would argue, to dampen further investment in the rental market in particular.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: That is simply not true.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: It is all just empty rhetoric.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: -----but I did it in the interest of the public well-being and the public health of our people. We have done other public health measures like the ban on smoky fuels that Mary Harney brought in, which had a huge impact on public health. I met Dr. Fauci recently and he and I have described social media as the public health threat of our time in respect of our children. The impact on...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: I brought in a measure years ago in terms of students being allowed to view their exam papers in schools. That cost money at the time because we had to fund it. What he did not mention in the FOI material is how the schools that were consulted said it was a transformative initiative in terms of the utilisation of phone pouches and preventing the use of smartphones during the school day. I...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: Deputy, could you explain to me why your party introduced it in Northern Ireland with the Northern Ireland Executive?
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: The hypocrisy of you. Through the Chair, what hypocrisy.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: This initiative is already in place in Northern Ireland----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2024)
Micheál Martin: -----and the Executive in Northern Ireland financed it and who is the Finance Minister? Sinn Féin holds the Finance Ministry.