Results 31,781-31,800 of 51,089 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: -----the adoption of five-year carbon budgets setting maximum emissions by sectoral legal requirement. It will also establish the climate action council on an independent statutory footing and ensure greater gender balance and increased scientific experience and expertise in its membership. The objective is to have the Bill ready and published within 100 days, give or take a day or two. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: As I have said, I will relay the Deputy's points to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and I am sure the Deputy will also have opportunities to engage with the Minister on these issues. He is a positive individual whose basic objective is to try to bring people on this journey to a cleaner, healthier and better society by meeting our obligations on climate change because it is the existential crisis...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Northern Ireland (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together. Following my meeting with the Northern Ireland First Minister and deputy First Minister in Belfast on 16 July, I welcomed them and their colleagues in the multi-party Executive to Dublin for the 24th plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council at Dublin Castle on Friday, 31 July, which I chaired. This was the first plenary...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Northern Ireland (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: In my discussions with the First Minister and the deputy First Minister on the internal market Bill, my objective is to protect the interests of the citizens of this island in the context of the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. Notwithstanding if somebody was pro-Brexit or pro-remain, everyone shares a pragmatic view that the least damage possible should...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: There are two substantive issues contained within the question that the Deputy put. In the first instance, I want to say that I fully understand the anxiety and stress that many individual mortgage holders, many people with personal loans and many small and medium-sized enterprises feel in terms of the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on their capacity to repay loans and on the general economic...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: It does need a wide review, not just of this specific issue, which needs to be dealt with, but also of the influence of foreign money on Irish politics. That is something that needs more rigorous inquiry in this country than has been the case to date. I have been through a number of referendums. That has been a concern for me and it continues to be a concern. It is also a concern that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for his query and I would commit to that. I have publicly said on a number of occasions that the implications of Covid will be with us right through 2021. We need to take it in bite sizes and the immediate necessity is for all of us to take stock on our individual behaviours in reducing social contacts and the level of congregation in which we engage. This is essential...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I agree with the Deputy on our engagement with the public over the next three months and the three months after that. By the way, we can stabilise the numbers and get them down. We will do our best at the Government level. I know the deputy Chief Medical Officer and his team will do likewise, as will the HSE. This is important. We know from experience that too many people up to now...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I am not responsible for operational decisions at the level of individual CT scanners, but I do not accept that this issue must wait until 2022. I will talk to the Minister for Health and the HSE about what is going on there. To be fair to all concerned, Roscommon hospital has been advanced in recent years. There were political rows about emergency departments and election commitments...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: Medical politics should not be dictating these issues. There should be a commonsense approach in these situations. As I stated, I am not aware of the detail of the situation on the ground. The Deputy is saying to me that clinicians within the Saolta group are not willing to use these facilities whereas clinicians in other HSE hospital groups are prepared to use them. That seems to be the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy made that assertion and it raises legitimate questions in respect of why this particular technology is not being used within the Saolta group. I will initiate inquiries as to why that is the case and ask the HSE and the Saolta Group for a report on the points raised by the Deputy. As soon as I have it, I will revert to the Deputy.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising two issues in his leaders' question. The first relates to the closure of beds. I do not know the specific local circumstances of Killarney or, indeed, Columbanus house which the Deputy mentioned. I met with the HSE for the south region on Friday last. They said they were actively looking for additional beds, in terms of community nursing beds and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I am glad the Deputy has clarified that aspect of it. I suspected that it might be a reconfiguration of the hospital because HIQA's guidelines said that what was there was not optimal. I will get a report on it. I met with the HSE South team last week. The need for additional beds outside acute hospitals to provide placements for people is an area of considerable concern to it. I know it...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: First of all, not everybody shared the consternation last week. Deputies can create their own consternation and some of them are quite good at it. They practice-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: What I mean is that it had already been arranged last week, prior to the consternation, that there would be presentations from the HSE and from the Minister this week. Not within the timelines last week, but the following week. That was agreed, actually, by the Covid committee. That is my understanding.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: Hold on, please. Equally, I am saying-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: People are saying that we will not have time. There is an hour and a half on the forestry Bill. An hour and a half.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: What is being suggested is that nobody on this side of the House should have any opportunity to speak at all.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: That is what is being said.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: When one boils it down-----