Results 49,821-49,840 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Bodies (8 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: I travelled to Austin and Washington D.C. as part of the Government’s St. Patrick’s Day global outreach. My extensive programme included political, economic, cultural and community engagements. My programme included a meeting in Washington DC with a number of participants in Strategic Economic Advisory Panel. This was the first engagement with participants of the Group. The...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Staff (8 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: The job titles and salary scales of all Ministerial staff, and private secretaries at the Department of the Taoiseach are outlined in the below table: Role: Salary Scale / Allowance: Chief of Staff (Taoiseach) Deputy Secretary Deputy Chief of Staff (Taoiseach) Assistant Secretary Special Adviser (Taoiseach) ...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Bodies (8 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: A disability unit is being established in Department of the Taoiseach. The unit will support the work of the Cabinet Committee on Disability. It will also support the work of the Minister for Children, Disability, and Equality and other Ministers in driving cross-government, inter-agency and inter-disciplinary working and collaboration to improve the lives of people with disabilities and...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Vacant Properties (8 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Department of the Taoiseach does not own any buildings. Accommodation used by the Department is provided and managed by the Office of Public Works.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: I could not disagree more with the Deputy on her critique of Government housing policy. The bottom line is that if we look over the past four years, there has been a very significant step change in the level and scale of housing delivery in this country. On social housing alone, more than 48,000 houses have been to the social housing stock.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: Not since the 1970s have we seen that level and scale of social house building and social house provision. Those are the facts. We need to do far more than that but, without question, the number of social houses built in the past three to four years is without compare and we would have to go back to the 1970s to get similar levels of social house completion.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: In the first three years of Housing for All - 2022 to 2024 - overall housing targets were exceeded. It is not all failure and failure as Deputy McDonald dismisses it. Those were the targets set by Housing for All and they were exceeded. More than 130,000 houses were constructed.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: We need to do much, much more. The ESRI has said that the need, as a result of population growth and so on, is approximately 50,000 per annum. Sinn Féin has failed in any shape or form to provide any substance underpinning housing policy in respect of how it would achieve that target, never mind the 30,000-plus that have been achieved on an annual basis over the past three years.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: Its policies were demonstrably anti-first-time buyer and there has been quite a significant drawdown of mortgages. Up to 120,000 first-time buyer mortgages have been drawn down over the past number of years.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: If Sinn Féin had its way, it would have taken away the supports such as the help to buy scheme or indeed the first home scheme from those first-time buyers and it would have destroyed the momentum that has been built up over the past number of years-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----in respect of first-time buyers. That is the reality. Deputy Mac Lochlainn can smile all he likes but that is the truth. Sinn Féin wanted to get rid of the help to buy scheme. It wanted to get rid of the bridge the gap scheme. Will he please explain to first-time buyers how that would have assisted them? It would not have in any shape or form. We will maintain the focus on...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: That includes €450 million for a further 3,000 affordable and social homes and €325 million in respect of second-hand acquisitions, incorporating the tenant in situ scheme and the provision for that. Since 2023 alone-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----over 3,300 homes have been acquired through second-hand acquisitions, as they are called, by local authorities across the country. We have published the national planning framework since coming back into office, which will facilitate the zoning of a considerably greater degree of land. I hope Sinn Féin will support that on local authorities across the country and get rid of its...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: The heads of the short-term lets Bill have been brought to Cabinet-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----and approved by Cabinet.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Government decided today to establish the housing activation office. No decision has been taken as to who will head up that office but the person will be seconded from within the public service. That is an intention, which basically means there will be no additional cost in salary or whatever-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----to housing - or to anybody, for that matter - in terms of a secondment-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----within the public service. That is the objective, but no decision has been made, so I am not in a position to confirm anything to Deputy McDonald today in that respect.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: I wish to confirm to the Deputy that the Central Statistics Office on Thursday - and the Deputy is good for giving her side or perspective all the time - indicated that close to 6,000 new homes were completed in the first quarter of 2025, which is the second highest first quarter delivery since the day the series began in 2011 and a 2% increase on the first quarter of 2024. It is a figure...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Micheál Martin: That is not surprising because she did not in any shape or form want to point to any figures that would give some degree of positive reality. We want to build far more and we acknowledge that we have far more to build. The Deputy has a record of opposing well over 1,000 houses in her own constituency.