Results 22,421-22,440 of 50,909 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: 31. To ask the Taoiseach if he has met the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Mr. Colum Eastwood, to discuss progress on the talks in Northern Ireland. [41159/15]
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: First, I join others in wishing the Northern Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, the very best in his retirement. I dealt with him in my capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs and negotiated with him in the context of the devolution of justice and related matters over a three-year period. In many instances I found him straight up in negotiations, although he came from a difficult...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: No, I certainly did not.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: In fact, if one watches all the interviews I gave, I am very clear about wanting the talks to succeed and wanting the institutions to survive.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It is not Sinn Féin's process, it is everybody's process. It belongs to the people of Ireland. A number of aspects of the agreement would concern people. The financial package does not quite add up and there is a bit of play going on in terms of changing six years to four years and taking money from one department to fund another department. In fact, in some respects, the package is...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: Yes.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: The issues with the UUP and the SDLP have not just started this summer. There has been a lack of inclusivity around how the Executive works. I would put that to the Taoiseach. Will he indicate to me whether any progress was made on the need to involve all parties on the Executive in a much more inclusive way in terms of the governance of Northern Ireland, particularly in terms of the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: One cannot always expect the SDLP to cosy up to any deal the big two parties make, to the exclusion-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I did not advise them at all. I let the SDLP make up its own mind. I did not advise the SDLP at all because I would have had more respect for it in that it has its own processes and is in command of its own situation to make its own informed judgments, which is what it has done.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I will indeed. The one big difference between this agreement and the Stormont House Agreement is that the issues around the past have essentially been parked in this latest iteration. I have always had the view that the British Government and Sinn Féin are probably the two main protagonists who never want full disclosure about the past, but I am concerned about why this agreement parks...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: We welcome it.
- Order of Business (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: The programme for Government contains many chapters. I ask the Taoiseach to indicate whether, even at this late stage, there will be any redrafting or updating of the programme for Government, in particular, whether the entire section dealing with universal health insurance will be formally deleted from the programme for Government and whether there will be a ceremony to announce formally...
- Order of Business (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: On a specific issue, delivering equity in education, the programme for Government states, "We will consider recommendations of the review of the DEIS programme and use it as platform for new initiatives to deliver better outcomes for students in disadvantaged areas." DEIS suffered cuts of 15% over two years ago. Those cuts have never been reversed, particularly for DEIS band 2 schools. In...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: Slowly but surely, the Department of Education and Skills and the National Council for Special Education are retreating from special education in mainstream schools, and they are consistently undermining it by developing wrong models. Special education is under-resourced at the moment and it is not prioritised by the Government. I have met with the parents of children with special needs,...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: At the moment parents are waiting because adequate resources are not being put into the assessment and diagnosis of children with special needs from an early age. The new proposal is for schools to take in the children and avail of a general allocation, whereby they can intervene even without a professional diagnosis. It is also shoving everything back to the parent, because the parent will...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I find the Taoiseach's response extraordinary because nobody seems to know what is going on in the Government. The Taoiseach is saying he cannot understand the idea of a child not needing a professional diagnosis.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It is what the Minister is proposing. This is the document. There was a meeting of 500 people recently in UCC being briefed by the National Council for Special Education, and it is saying that one of the benefits of the new system is that parents will not have to wait for a professional diagnosis any more. The idea is that there is an educational intervention without any professional...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: Sorry?
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I will not have time in a minute to read it all out. It is a presentation entitled "Delivery for Students with Special Educational Needs: A Better and More Equitable Way," from the Irish Learning Support Association annual conference.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: This is the Minister's document. Here it says-----