Results 35,701-35,720 of 51,299 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: -----that I will not forget.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: What I learned will govern our relationship from here onwards in terms of the nature of the engagements we will have.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: I have never before seen the likes of what transpired. As I was engaged here, the Deputy came along over here. I will refer him to what he asked me on the record of the House immediately before our exchange. The Deputy asked, "Given the complication RSV causes, will the Government consider prioritising front-line workers such as gardaí, retail workers, transport workers and, most of...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: I just want to put that on the record. The Deputy came over to me for a 30-second or 40-second engagement. He scampered off and told his education spokesperson who tweeted something that was then reported as fact. It is extraordinary.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: I am putting it straight. I have learned some things about the Deputy.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: I am. I never said those words.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: I never said what the Deputy construed I said. I rang you afterwards to make it very clear to you how I regarded the interchange. You cannot do things like that.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: If I may say, the issue is that we have 4,500 cases a day. We have expanded the use of antigen testing. The Deputy knows that public health advice has not been very enthusiastic about the wider deployment of antigen testing. Progress has been made. Antigen testing is being used in meat processing plants, nursing homes and third level education and for close contacts. Those tests are...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: The Deputy is being populist-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: -----in saying the boosters should be given to everybody.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: Keep your voice down and calm it down. Cool it.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: The bottom line is this: NIAC has advised as to the cohort that should get the booster. Why? Who is in the ICU departments at the moment? Those in the ICU departments are the immunocompromised, the unvaccinated, people with underlying conditions and those in older age cohorts.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: Who are most at risk? They include those in older age cohorts, the immunocompromised-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: -----and people with underlying conditions. The advice is that they need the booster before anybody else. We have been through this before. I have heard it suggested in this House that the booster should be given to this group, that group or the next group. It is all popular stuff; it courts the group and it courts the sector but-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: -----the most effective thing we can do is proceed in accordance with the medical advice, public health advice and advice of those who advise on immunisation, which is to give the booster to those who need it most first. I thought we were all in agreement on that. On private hospital capacity, 1,100 to 1,200 beds are already being used on a continuing basis by the HSE in this respect....
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: -----under agreements that have already been arrived at and planned for in respect of growing numbers of cases and pressures on the health system.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: There is a need, as we emerge from Covid, to restructure the economy. That is why the economic recovery plan and national development plan focus so strongly on the digitalisation and digital transformation that are occurring and will occur here and globally. There is also a focus on the green economy, through significant investments in areas such as public transport and retrofitting, and on...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: In my initial reply, I did not deal with the issue of childcare. As the Deputy knows, we are making very substantial funding available in the budget, and we will do so next year, to ensure the existence of proper income supports for workers in the childcare sector and to create a career pathway. Employers and unions can work in the knowledge that there is a financial envelope to deal with...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: First, there has been a dramatic expansion of resources for home care hours. I think the Deputy would have to acknowledge that. There were 5 million hours last year in respect of-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2021)
Micheál Martin: It had a huge impact last year in terms of reducing the number of people waiting for home care packages. There is a critical skills and ineligible occupations list review of sectors of the economy that we need to liberalise in terms of getting work permits and so on. The review has not so far recommended the removal of the occupation of care workers or home carers from the ineligible...