Results 24,081-24,100 of 50,909 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. Advisers can have an important role in the context of Government. I have no difficulty with that. There are six non-members of Fine Gael in the Administration and a handful of other Deputies in the arrangement for supporting the Government. It is quite intriguing that Deputy Harty, who does not have ministerial status, has access to an adviser. We...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: I met that individual during the talks with the Independents. He came across as a very intelligent, pragmatic person who has had his work cut out for him since. He must be finding it very testing and challenging indeed to keep the Minister focused on his ministerial duties.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: I have to question whether that is an effective use of resources. Can the Taoiseach outline the specific staffing resources? I take it that their focus is the implementation of Government policy and proper co-ordination and cohesion on policy. We are also advised that the person responsible for transport suddenly has a greater interest in justice and is dictating the scene there, to the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: Is Deputy Canney passing on the baton in February?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: Could the Taoiseach outline the specific staffing resources assigned purely to managing relations between Fine Gael and the other Government Deputies? Could he send it on to me if he does not have it at his disposal, as well as the individual arrangements pertaining to the Independent Ministers and Ministers of State?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: Arising from that, what is the arrangement for the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and the incoming Minister of State, Deputy Moran?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: He is to become Minister of State in February. They tossed a coin as to who would get the first attempt at being Minister of State.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: Will Deputy Moran get the same adviser that Deputy Canney has or will he have the luxury of picking his own? This is a very unprecedented thing to happen, to be honest. I have never come across a situation before in which turns are given to people on the basis that it is one person's turn one year and another person's turn the next, and that a coin is tossed over it.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: In my naivety, I asked if it was for the full term of two and a half years each. One of the Deputies looked at me as if I had lost my marbles and said, "Are you joking me? Sure this thing will not last at all. We will go one year at a time". Someone should intervene and stop that.

Leaders' Questions (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: On 19 October last, I raised the need to give access to the Orkambi drug to cystic fibrosis, CF, patients. I pointed out that we have the highest number of people per head of population with cystic fibrosis. We should be in the vanguard in terms of research and new drug technologies. Since I last raised this matter, I met Jillian McNulty who has CF and who has been on Orkambi for three...

Leaders' Questions (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: I do not accept the Minister's response in its entirety. Up to very recently the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform demanded the right to sanction any new drugs and the Minister for Health had to go before the Cabinet. That was the position. I know that to be the case up to very recently, even up to the time the new cancer drug pembro came along. Professor Stuart Elborn has...

Leaders' Questions (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: We should be under no illusion that the leak last Sunday was to send a message that this was not going to happen. That is what the leak to The Sunday Business Postwas about.

Leaders' Questions (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: The decision was taken. That is why it was leaked. We need to reverse that and get to the front line-----

Leaders' Questions (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: -----and be in the vanguard of new technologies. I apologise, a Cheann Comhairle, and I thank you.

Leaders' Questions (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: One must be careful with the evidence.

Questions on Proposed Legislation (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: The programme for Government contains a commitment to "establish an independent patient advocacy service", clarifies that the Government considers "Open Disclosure as an essential component of patient safety" and refers to "the recommendations of the Madden Commission on Patient Safety". The Minister may have seen the reports about a whistleblower in Limerick who has made serious allegations...

Questions on Proposed Legislation (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: There is a long paragraph on the establishment of the service in the programme for Government, but that might not mean anything.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Reform (30 Nov 2016)

Micheál Martin: 157. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to continue the process of dismantling the HSE and evolving it into a health commission in view of the programme for Government commitment in this regard. [34869/16]

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2016)

Micheál Martin: In March 1983 the chief prison officer at Portlaoise Prison, Mr. Brian Stack, was shot in the back of the neck. He was the only prison officer in the Republic of Ireland to be murdered during the Troubles by the Provisional IRA. He died in September 1984 as a result of his injuries. It has been revealed that the leader of Sinn Féin, Deputy Gerry Adams, wrote to the Garda Commissioner...

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2016)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I want to refer him to comments made by Austin Stack recently. He said:Gerry Adams brought us in a blacked out van to see an IRA leader who he said he trusted and was a friend. Adams told us and reaffirmed this in the media last week that he asked this IRA leader to carry out an investigation. An investigation was carried out internally. Mr. Stack went...