Results 32,981-33,000 of 51,089 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committees (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Cabinet Committee on COVID-19 meets as required. It last met on 26th November. A date has not yet been set for the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committees (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Health is scheduled to take place on Monday, 14 December.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committees (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Investment first met on the 8 July. It has met on a total of eight occasions, most recently on 4 December. The next meeting has not yet been scheduled.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Bodies Data (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: National Economic and Social Council The National Economic and Social Council is an independent statutory agency operating under the aegis of my Department. The Terms of Reference and composition of the NESC are set out in legislation - the National Economic and Social Development Act, 2006, and in the National Economic and Social Council (Alteration of Composition) Order, 2010. I appoint...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has deliberately distorted and misrepresented what I said on the last number of occasions. On no stage have I ever suggested that other nurses exploit student nurses. That is a complete untruth. I said any employer that would take from a student his or her full student status, which is what the nursing degree is about, and use him or her on a 13-hour roster to work and not pay...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The nursing degree programme, nurse education and the quality of it is not a tangent. It is at the very core of this issue and Deputy McDonald has steadfastly refused to address it because she knows the truth. The truth is that one cannot have both systems.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I did not interrupt the Deputy. We cannot have both and she is pretending we can. She is not being honest in this debate. The heads of schools and departments of nursing are very clear that supernumerary status is a fundamental expression of full student status, which has ultimately brought enormous benefits to the professions of nursing and midwifery, to the health services and to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I have worked with chief nursing officers in the past. Their greatest ambition was to move out of the dark ages and move into modern nurse education. Student nurses in first year should not have to work a 13-hour shift. They should not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: They have nine weeks of clinical placement for the entire year. That clinical placement should be protected and Deputy McDonald should be demanding that it be protected.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: Everyone in this House should be doing that because it is the right thing to do by the students.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: Otherwise it is not a learning environment. Let us not kid ourselves and pretend it would be if people were working during the night and at 2 o'clock in the morning as first year nursing students on a nine-week placement. The nine-week placement is about learning.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: It should not be about working rosters. This is not as simplistic as the Deputy wants to present it for political gain and to win votes and to be popular.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: That is the easy thing to do in here-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: -----and the Deputy is doing it on a consistent basis.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: Sinn Féin's policy on nurse education is quite frankly incoherent.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: That is an extraordinary statement to make. The Deputy is an extraordinary propagandist and a populist. He has led people up the hill without levelling with them about the facts and what they could expect. The Deputy's behaviour in this dispute has not been great either because he knows the facts and the legal realities. The only party which has stood up to the plate here are those in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has just summed it up. His role is to blame Government, full stop. Ignore all the realities, ignore all the legal frameworks and all the challenges. His job is to blame Government and, perhaps, to undermine the trade union involved as well. There is a bit of that in his operation as well. I have picked that up during the course of this. Very often, the Deputy is not very...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. First of all, it is a phenomenon we have not come across that there is a higher incidence of Covid-19 in close proximity to testing centres, but I will ask the Chief Medical Officer to investigate this and give his comments and his perspectives on it, and those of the HSE personnel involved. Testing and contact tracing is a key component of the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I certainly will. As yet, there has been no indication of a correlation between the location of testing centres and a higher incidence of Covid-19. I will ask the Chief Medical Officer to consider this and I will check with the HSE about facilities for visitors at the site itself. People generally tend to arrive and leave again, but I will ask the HSE to take the Deputy's concerns about...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Government considered the Meenan report and the law of tort around medical negligence today. The report recommends that we pursue a vaccine compensation scheme, the development and production of which the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice are working on. Regarding indemnity, the content of advance purchase agreements, including provisions relating to liability and...