Results 31,361-31,380 of 51,063 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I know that the local Deputies and public representatives in those counties from all political parties took much heat and I want to thank them for working with the health and public expenditure Departments to see what we could do to help people in those situations.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I apologise for going over time here but on the question of sick pay, we will work constructively with the Deputy on this legislation which has many including, of course, financial implications. We have already moved ahead to create an infrastructure around Covid-19 illness payments, particularly in direct provision and meat plant contexts to make it very clear that every worker in such...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I have dealt with it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has a tendency to develop a melodramatic posture when he is addressing people from time to time.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has. The Government introduced the Covid-19 illness benefit. Some €330 is available per week to employed and self-employed workers. It is paid for two weeks where a person is medically certified as self-isolated, and can be extended for a further two weeks and for a maximum of ten weeks where a person is medically certified as being diagnosed with Covid-19. We extended...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: Hold on. Last month, the Government also approved the extension of Covid-19 illness benefit to the end of March 2021. It is important to note that the Covid-19 illness benefit payment and the pandemic unemployment payment are also available to people living in direct provision centres as well as to applicants for international protection who live in the community outside of the direct...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I know that. I accept the necessity to intervene here. We all agree on that. As I said to the Deputy, I will constructively engage with his legislation, which has more longer-term implications for the broader workforce.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: We have intervened in direct provision.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: We have discussed this with the acting Chief Medical Officer. We are collectively on the same page with regard to this. We have made provision for it from the State's side so that workers know-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: -----that if they get sick or have to self-isolate, they will not lose out. That is something we have communicated and will continue to communicate.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I thank Deputy Murphy for the series of questions raising very real concerns and issues relating to people from the Deputy's county, the impact of the lockdowns and the whole situation around high-risk areas such as meat plants, which to a large extent represented the perfect storm in the spread of the virus, and related issues. Again, the decision to intervene in the three counties by...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I am very clear that we must have this engagement with the meat industry and with other sectors that are important and which create employment. The rights of workers in the meat industry need strengthening and I believe collective representation for those workers is important. That will form part of the Government's continuing engagement with the industry.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: Of course I will visit the areas. I did not want to do so during the period of the severe restrictions but we were in touch with the chambers of commerce. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, the Tánaiste and others were in touch with affected people in the three counties and we will continue to engage with them. On the data hub, the Deputy heard...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government is not about punishing anyone and has not been from the outset of the pandemic. The key responses in terms of the pandemic unemployment payment and the wage subsidy scheme have, as I have said before, been unprecedented and significant and have supported a significant number of people. This week approximately €17.2 million...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The whole thrust of Government policy is not to punish; it is to support. Any objective analysis of Government interventions to date would have to accept that was the case. The level of State intervention is unprecedented, and rightly so, because it is an unprecedented global pandemic. Both schemes are being extended to April - that is the fact. The Deputy is talking about the rates....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: We will continue to work on those issues. I take the sincerity of the Deputy's comments in regard to Debenhams, the workers of which we are continuing to engage with.

Nomination of Member of the Government: Motion (2 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I move: The Dáil Éireann approves the nomination by the Taoiseach of Deputy Charlie McConalogue for appointment by the President to be a member of the Government. It is my intention to assign to Deputy McConalogue the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As the House will know, Deputy McConalogue's knowledge of this area is both broad and deep. A proud son of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The treatment of the Debenhams workers has been very shabby, shoddy and unacceptable and I have made that point on a number of occasions. Notwithstanding the difficulties the parent company was or is in, the failure to honour the collective agreements into which these workers had entered is unacceptable, and the manner in which they have been treated is unacceptable as far as the performance...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is the table to which the Deputy has just alluded. She knows what I am saying. Talks should begin. There should be dialogue again between the key interests. The Deputy knows there was ongoing work by Mandate, in particular, to do its best in difficult situations to arrive at and realise a package from the workers. Last Friday, the Deputy welcomed that there was a result from that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: That assessment will be finished by quarter four of this year.