Results 49,421-49,440 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: You are not a leader yet, Deputy.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I did not get a chance to finish what I was saying.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Westminster.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Deputies, I am making the point in answer to the question - in fairness the Deputy has asked questions and I think I should be allowed the right to answer but other Deputies do not want me to because they do not like the answer.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: What I would say to you is this; in the future, for example, there could be three or four TDs who could facilitate the formation of a Government. What the Deputy is now saying is that Independent TDs in the future attempting to facilitate the formation of a Government will have their rights diminished. That is the essence of the Opposition proposal.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Take Deputies McGrath and Nolan, for example, they are part of this group. They have voted against the Government three or four times already but the Deputy and others are taking it upon themselves to tell them they must be corralled in a certain part of the Dáil and can only be allowed to do A, B and C. That is unconstitutional. You have no right to do that. You have absolutely no...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Such hyperbole is really stretching it. The bottom line is this-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: ------that three of the Opposition parties gain more time in terms of holding the Government to account. That is the factual position, as a result of 20 hours of discussions and so forth between the Chief Whip and the Whips of the other parties and also in terms of the committee on Dáil reform. That is the mechanism we have established in terms of the committee on Dáil Reform.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I say to the Deputy, from his perspective he is not losing any time.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: You are not compared to the last Dáil, you are actually gaining time and that is the bottom line here.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----with eight minutes on a Tuesday or on a Wednesday. All this row, about the dark days of Irish democracy, is about eight minutes extra on a Tuesday and eight minutes extra on a Wednesday-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: This apparently means we are on the brink of a terrible sort of negativity and so on.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Over the past ten years, there has been a consistent, incremental increase in time allocated to smaller groups within the Dáil and to Independents within the Dáil. There is a group on the far left that has about three or four Members with more speaking rights than other with 40 TDs or more.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: That has been the reality over the past ten years.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: There needs to be a degree of rebalancing.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Backbench Deputies need the opportunity to ask questions.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: There is no big deal in that. It does not in any way-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: The big demand from members of the Opposition at the beginning, when we met with them, was not to lose any time. They have not lost any time.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Opposition groups have actually gained time.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: It is interesting. I made a fundamental point. When a general election happens, and the Deputy knows this because they have engaged with us at different times after different elections, Governments have to be formed.