Results 37,801-37,820 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I have been around the country. Local authorities-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----are advancing right across the country on active travel, a whole range of environmental schemes and on biodiversity. The Deputy has overstated the position.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Connolly has overstated the position.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for articulating so vividly the horrors of what is occurring in certain locations across the city. In the area he represents there was, at the weekend, the shocking murder of a young man. Certainly at Government level we will do everything we can. The Garda and Minister for Justice are doing everything they can through the criminal justice system to stamp out this...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I will certainly raise that and follow that through for the Deputy. He has raised a very fair point.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Buckley, along with Deputies O'Connor, Stanton and others, has been raising this issue for quite some time about the need in the east of County Cork. Very substantial investment has, as Deputy Buckley knows, been sanctioned for the Carrigtohill site. I understand there are further challenges with school placements. I will follow that through with the Department of Education and see...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. First, the total number of funded consultant positions in Mayo University Hospital is about 64, with 60.5 currently in post when locums are included. The area of difficulty in filling posts in Mayo University Hospital is predominantly within the medical speciality, so there are a range of issue there. Interviews will be held in April for two...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The Department of Finance is advised by Revenue the VAT rating of goods and services is subject to EU VAT law. In general, the VAT directive provides all goods and services are liable for VAT at the standard rate, currently 23% in Ireland, unless they fall within categories of goods and services specified in the directive. The directive also allows...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: We will have to look at other ways. We will work with the Deputy and engage further on this to see what we can do.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: In response to Deputy Mythen, €220 million in core funding went into childcare this year. It should be within the capacity of the sector, given that level of funding, to deal with the issue he raised, although I do not know the details of the individual case. On Deputy Costello's point, I will talk to the Minister for Education. The move the Minister has made in having an alternative...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: Sorry. On the pig industry, Deputy Smyth will know from her interactions with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, that he is working intensively with the pig farmers. It is an industry that ordinarily is viable but because of a unique set of circumstances, a perfect storm has emerged for the industry. We want to protect the jobs and the industry and the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. The only commissions of investigation for which I am the specified Minister under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 are the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Commission of Investigation and the National Asset Management Agency Commission of Investigation, both of which are fully independent. The IBRC Commission of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputies for the issues raised. With respect to Deputy Boyd Barrett, we need a better model of inquiry. More important, existing agencies should be the principal mechanism for holding Government agencies and bodies and, generally, society to account and contemporaneously. One of the difficulties in looking back is that we use the prism of today to judge actions 30 or 40 years...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: Of course, but-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: Approximately 18,000 Ukrainians have come into this country in the space of six weeks. In parallel with that, in terms of normal migration outside of Ukraine, more migrants and asylum seekers have arrived here in the first two to three months of this year than arrived here in the entirety of last year. Within Europe, we have internal migration into Ireland, which we have to deal with and...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is saying that because he is already building up the case for an inquiry against people who are working flat out within our system to do everything they possibly can to accommodate people with respect and with dignity. We are doing that. In terms of ending direct provision, the Government has a policy in that respect. There are hundreds of families in direct provision who...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: If I could just-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I just want to very quickly-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 20, inclusive, together. I attended a number of meetings of the European Council in recent weeks. A special meeting on 24 February was called in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I also attended an informal meeting on 10 and 11 March that took place in Versailles and the regular March meeting of the European Council on 24 and 25 March. All...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (5 Apr 2022)

Micheál Martin: The next batch of questions relate to the phone call I had with President Zelenskyy. They become irrelevant afterwards.