Results 47,421-47,440 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----European programme. Brexit put paid to that programme. Therefore, the Government intervened to create a bespoke cross-Border mechanism in respect of cross-Border services, particularly in the area of cataracts. As for the cost and so on, a lot depends on how much private operators are charging in the North. Obviously, the HSE reviews this on an ongoing basis. I will get further...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: I welcome the Deputy's acknowledgement of the importance of the retrofit programme.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: There would be no retrofitting, from a climate perspective, it if was not for the carbon tax, which has given us the revenue to enable us-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----to do the first ever comprehensive retrofit scheme, which includes both social housing, housing for the elderly and-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: Sinn Féin opposed the carbon tax. The reality is the retrofit programme would not be possible at all. Sinn Féin needs to get its house in order in respect of a coherent plan.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes, we want more to do with them, but you are not.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: There are ongoing challenges in agriculture, particularly because of climate, inclement weather and changing and uncertain weather patterns. It seems to me, from people to whom I have been talking recently, that there is a particular challenge on the tillage side. We will keep this under review.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Government has continually prioritised the homelessness issue. Government has provided increased funding, year after year, to many of the social housing providers and approved housing bodies, AHB, quite an extensive number of which receive very substantial funding. As I said in an earlier reply, our focus has been on prevention where we have had significant success-----.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----in exiting people out of emergency accommodation more quickly than would have been the case before. We have built more houses in the past four years than were built in the previous ten. We intend to continue to build more houses, particularly social houses, to deal with the social housing crisis and the issue of homelessness. Homelessness is a multifaceted and complex issue. I would...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: I would hate to think that there are any public servants counting the days until the Deputy leaves to go to the European Parliament.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: It would shock me that there would be people counting the days, although not everyone has the Deputy's uniquely creative approach to issues. I mean that as a compliment. Compliance is taken seriously by the Minister for children and his Department. There is no doubt that there has been an unprecedented increase. Some 31,000 people, of whom some 8,000 are children, are now living in...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: I hope it will be factual. The word "collation"-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy. I have no doubt that he read the report from cover to cover. During my time as Minister for Education, the Deputy was my Opposition counterpart. I know from his diligence and his work that he would read every report that was ever published. I take his point that the retrofit programme has been a success. However, he makes a fair point about the 250,000 houses using...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: That does not mean the Deputy read it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: That is not the case. I will not take lectures from the Deputy in terms of how to communicate with grieving families. and how his party has communicated with grieving families down through the decades.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: No, it is not. I am just making the point. The scoping inquiry and the publication of Judge Haugton's report into-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy made assertions. After the Dáil resolution of a number of years ago calling for a public inquiry, the scoping inquiry was established.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: It took much longer than anyone anticipated - about three to four years - for the report to emerge. It was a comprehensive inquiry. The Government has now decided to refer it to the justice committee. Two weeks ago, other Deputies raised the matter during Questions on Policy or Legislation. I suggested that I would like to talk to members of other parties to see if there is a way through...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Ceann Comhairle said he would be interested in convening meetings of party representatives to see if we can find a route through. I would now have ethical issues about another inquiry going on for four or five years or maybe longer. There have been lots of inquiries that did not give victims their-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jul 2024)

Micheál Martin: I am willing to work with the Ceann Comhairle and other parties to find a route through here and to facilitate the airing of some of the issues that people are perhaps not happy with in respect of the scoping inquiry.