Results 46,721-46,740 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is positive. This legislation is positive. It is an advance on 1990. It is an advance on the legislation that gave rise to the representative associations. A bit more positivity here is called for. What we are speaking about is being in uniform. That is what the Bill says.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Cronin took issue with me using the phrase "in uniform". That is what the Bill says. We are not saying people cannot have views as citizens of the country. Of course they can have views as citizens of the country.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: We are not. If you read the Bill it is very clear with regard to being in uniform or people otherwise making themselves identifiable as members of the permanent Defence Forces. We are trying to preserve the apolitical nature of the Defence Forces. That is what we are trying to do. It is already in Defence Forces regulations, as Deputy Cronin has acknowledged.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: The idea that we are insulting anybody is outrageous. There is no intention to do that. We are protecting people from potential embroilment in all sorts of issues. We are maintaining the framework within which the Defence Forces operate. We are advancing it insofar as they will now enjoy statutory underpinning of association membership with ICTU. This is an advance. To respond to...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: No, that would not be right. That would not be correct. For example, the conciliation and arbitration mechanism is well used by the representative associations on a range of issues. We have come a long way since 1990.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Lahart outlined its origins. The formation and establishment by former Fianna Fáil Minister for Defence Brian Lenihan senior in respect of the representative associations was a breakthrough at the time. We have advanced since then. There is healthy engagement with RACO and PDFORRA. I do not think they could argue there is any attempt to restrict. I must stress that we...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: No, it is not.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: Not individually.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy does not have to. I will explain it later.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Boyd Barrett does not know what is in the Bill, as he acknowledged.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: The process. It deals with the grievance process, not individual complaints.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: That is what I am trying to clarify. It is not individual complaints. I will come back to it.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is because it is exasperating to listen to this nonsense. To me, that is just an instance of how there is a problem because, surely, an external oversight body should be precisely something that does not have that sort of cosy relationship or potential conflict of interest where it might not really be in its interest to admit there is a problem or something being done wrong and,...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: I apologise for nodding my head all the time, but in fairness to the Deputy, and I do not mean this in any bad way, he did say that he had come to the Bill and has not been following it to an extensive degree.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: The point I would generally make to all the Deputies is to ask what the genesis of this is. Why are we bringing in legislation, part of which is establishing an external oversight body? It is because the independent review group recommended it. Why did the independent review group recommend it? What was the independent review group doing? It was investigating shocking behaviour,...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----to make a recommendation to create an independent oversight body with the Secretary General on it, by the way. There is a reason it is called independent oversight. The independent review body recommended that it be independent of the Defence Forces, whether we like it or not. That was the recommendation. When it came out and was published, every one of the Opposition Deputies was in...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: I am not so sure you are. You say you are, but when we try to do something practical about it, you find other reasons about it and start getting Jesuitical about the public service management-----

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----and the separation between the Chief of Staff and Secretary General. There is another agenda here. There is an anti-Secretary General agenda. There is an anti-Department agenda.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: I am not saying Deputy Howlin has it, but it is in the ether.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has been around a long time too. I have noticed that the train of thought in this debate has been the Department on one hand and military on the other.