Results 17,501-17,520 of 50,683 for speaker:Micheál Martin

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: In the first phase of the vaccinations up to 70,000 vaccines were administered to front-line healthcare workers. Some 23,000 were administered to the residents of long-term care facilities. The objective is that by next Sunday all residents and staff in such long-term care facilities would be vaccinated, and a substantial number of front-line healthcare workers. Once the long-term care...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I personally did not close anything and I certainly did not close that facility because I was not involved in that decision. I have not refused to meet anyone.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I do not know whether the Deputies have talked to the HSE locally. I suspect that the Deputies are aware of why the HSE took the action it has taken. That said, it is my understanding that the HSE wanted to invest in the centre with different purposes in mind. The facility needs a lot of investment and its current structures are not in a very good state, and I believe the Deputies would...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I have no issue in engaging with the HSE. I have not refused to meet with anybody. I do not know why people assert that I have, I have not. That remains the position.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I will talk to the Minister on the wind energy guidelines and the publication of the Mulcahy report. I will follow those up for the Deputy. The wind energy guidelines have been considered by the Department for a long time now so I will talk with the Minister about those.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the virus is wreaking devastation on many industries, on many sectors and on society at large. That is the reality. The vaccination programme offers light at the end of the tunnel. We are part of a European pre-purchase agreement process with a number of companies for the delivery of the vaccine. The first such company was Pfizer-BioNTech and...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: The Government decided on this in respect of the post of Secretary General for the Department of Health given the enormous transformation that is required in our health service over the next number of years. Without doubt, it is the largest spending Department, which has had an extraordinary allocation again this year of an additional €4 billion. If we take one project, such as the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: That is the point. This Department, and I am not going to-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: That predates me, but it speaks to the need to change how the Department of Health is structured and organised. Good reform has been happening within the Health Service Executive. The Department of Health, without question, needs a special focus over the next while to bring through Sláintecare, a universal healthcare system, to get value for money for the extraordinary allocations of...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I do not see how that would help at this stage to advance the vaccination programme, given the lines of authority and the statutory framework which governs health. We have appointed a national task force. The national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, advises clinically on the vaccines in respect of safety and efficacy and prioritisation among groups. The HSE is essentially the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I think the Deputies for raising this very important issue. Directions have issued and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has been clear that people should not be turned away from emergency accommodation on the grounds of locality or where they are from. I watched that programme. It is difficult enough for people who find themselves homeless where there is capacity and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I agree. Every category the Deputy has just enumerated is not only being looked at, but worked on. A vaccinator workforce of scale, over and above existing hospital vaccinators, GPs and pharmacists, is needed. We need to draw upon resources. Some who are retired will be able to come forward, for example. There will be vaccination centres in different communities across the country. The...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: Indeed it has. The Minister will be in tomorrow. I believe this proposal has been circulated. There is to be a statement by the Minister for Education and questions and answers on the issue of the day regarding special education from 4.24 p.m. to 6.04 p.m. There is also to be a debate of nearly two hours on the vaccine programme comprising a fixed 100-minute debate and a ten-minute wrap-up.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: We had understood there was broad agreement on the proposal. We are leaving it that. It was a reasonable and generous response. The Minister is quite prepared to come before the House to deal with this.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: All workers who can work from home should do so and all employers should facilitate that. That is Government policy and has been the Government message to the employer representative bodies. Only essential workers should have to leave their homes and the overwhelming message is for people to stay at home unless they are engaged in essential services. I did not ever hear the CMO say that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue but I assure him that there is no need for people not to have confidence in the vaccination programme. It will be very comprehensive and will be ramped up as further vaccines are authorised and made available to us. The only limiting factor at the moment is the supply of vaccines. The only significant volumes we have received to date are from...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I do not take the same interpretation as the Deputy of the interview he mentions. If we get down to the nuts and bolts of this, much of what was proposed in this House formed the substance of the talks and the engagement between the partners and the Minister. On 4 January the Deputy said that if schools are to close, the Department must assess a middle course between having all open and all...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: On the zero Covid approach, the Deputy has been very clear that the advice of NPHET should be followed, and the advice of NPHET and the Chief Medical Officer has been consistently against a zero Covid approach on the basis that they do not think it practical or that it could work. The most recent discussion on that was between Deputy Boyd Barrett and the Chief Medical Officer at the leaders'...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: -----of the Minister for Education on a range of issues that were raised by the unions on behalf of their members, all of which were acceded to and received positive responses.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Jan 2021)

Micheál Martin: I stand by the Minister's and the Government's sincere commitment to open schools for children with special needs. It is wrong to play politics with children with special needs, which is what I witnessed this morning in the Deputy's contribution.