Results 38,541-38,560 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: On Deputy Niamh Smyth’s point, I fully appreciate the work the committee has been doing in regard to the Future of Media Commission. It is tying that in with the future of democracy and of media literacy. That is extremely important. We would hope to be able to make a decision on this soon. However, I would be upfront with the committee and say that the fundamental issue will be...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I hear what the Deputy is saying on aviation. We are very anxious to get regional balanced development and Shannon Airport is particularly important in that regard, as well as Cork Airport. Hopefully, in the post-Covid environment, we will see a significant pick-up in traffic and international connectivity in particular. I hear what the Deputy is saying about the national broadband plan...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: That is the key. We are working very hard on national cybersecurity. I did not get a chance to address Deputy Flanagan’s earlier point because it was kind of an extensive contribution on European defence, but on the security defence issue, cybersecurity comes under that remit. We cannot deal with cybersecurity on our own. In fact, cybersecurity can only be dealt with on a...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Am I correct that Deputy Bacik started or was it Senator Carrigy?

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I apologise. The first point is I appreciate the work she is doing and the fact it is timebound. I wish her every success. We will do everything we can to be supportive of the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality. On the constitutional issues, again, several Ministers have briefed the committee on the matters under their aegis. On the referendums that may arise from...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I agree. It is our constitutional framework and it is everything else. However, we need to be honest with people as well. We can create all the mechanisms but if they become a function of a body that does not work subsequently then it fails.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes, I suppose. We in the Oireachtas repeatedly get calls for commissions of inquiry and commissions of investigation. That is very much a failure of existing bodies that should be doing this work habitually and regularly. If one were to count all the commissions of inquiry we are being asked to set up, the costs would be enormous but all those costs are resources that are taken from...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Senator is speaking like a Meath full back of old.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: From a Corkman. We took a few kicks in our time.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It is indelibly embedded in our folk memory.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Tá ról faoi leith ag na heolaithe leighis sa chóras sláinte. Bhí an ról sin soiléir le linn na paindéime. Admhaím go bhfuil ceist ann agus go bhfuil siad ag lorg parity idir iad féin agus na clinical biochemists le fada an lá anois. Is í an chaoi is fearr chun na ceisteanna seo a réiteach ná trí cainteanna laistigh...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: First, the health sector management has engaged with the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association, MLSA, through the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, over the course of 2021 and, more recently, through the sectoral bargaining process under Building Momentum 2021-2022. The Public Service Agreement Group, PSAG, recommended that the parties re-engage at the WRC. That is where it has been...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: That is why we want to get this resolved. We believe it can be if we can get a proper basis for engagement with the WRC or the Labour Court.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I acknowledge the disruption being caused as a result of strike action. It is having an impact and will continue to affect patients. I do not think anybody wants that and the MLSA does not want it either, to be fair, but this is having an impact. There is a very strong desire to get this matter resolved. What has been going on through informal...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I take the Deputy's point but, as she knows, before a formal invitation issues one would like to know there is a basis for it to be accepted. A lot of informal work and contact goes on all of the time between parties with a view to getting the right basis to facilitate participation in these mechanisms at the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court. Each year approximately half of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue and generally for his consistency in raising these issues in respect of Waterford University Hospital and the broader constituency. He referenced the national maternity hospital. That was first announced in 2013. It is now 2022. It is questionable as to whether too many walls have been gone through. It took seven years to get to a...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Some 250 new staff have been appointed to the hospital since January 2020, of whom 25 are consultants. All consultant cardiology posts are filled. I do not know whether the Deputy is equating the consultants to the pilots.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The consultants might have an issue with that. In any event, there are a fair few pilots there and we want to do more for the hospital.