Results 7,281-7,300 of 50,151 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: Through the Chair, I would like to continue my speech without interruption. I listened for a good hour to Deputies Bruton and Burton and did not interrupt.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: We are all lucky in that respect. The point I am making in terms of felon-setting and political sloganeering is that there is a lovely political line coming from the Labour Party that is popular, about electoral appeal and winning votes but not grounded on an honest assessment of the situation-----
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: -----or on viable solutions to the banking crisis.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: That is the charge I would make. The guarantee was the beginning of the rot for the Labour Party in terms of policy of substance.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: Perhaps it was fine from the perspective of electoral politics but, from the perspective of creating solutions, it was the beginning of the rot. The Labour Party bottled it on the guarantee and did the easy thing in the days and weeks after it was given, namely lump everything together on popular grounds, including property speculation and tax reliefs.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: If one wants to talk about tax reliefs, one must remember it was its Government that introduced the seaside resort relief. The argument that the property market was stoked by a Fianna Fáil Government is erroneous.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: Nobody gave Mr. Sean Dunne a tax relief to buy certain hotels on the south side of Dublin to try to make a profit. We had a free market and the fundamental flaw was with regulation.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: I will deal with that.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: The problem with regulation in any crisis concerns who guards the guards.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: The point is that the conventional wisdom for decades was that politicians should be kept-----
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: Irrespective of who was in Government, the conventional wisdom was that politicians should be kept out of regulation and that there should be independent regulation that could not be compromised by the political system.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: The bottom line was that the independent regulatory system collapsed and failed abysmally, as I have acknowledged.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: I do not accept the simplistic propositions of the Opposition in regard to this entire crisis.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: There are many underlying factors. As the Taoiseach said today, we have witnessed the worst global recession since 1929. The challenge is to chart the right pathways out of that recession.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: As Minister for Foreign Affairs, I know international opinion suggests Ireland has demonstrated the capacity to take itself out of the fiscal crisis.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: In terms of NAMA and the special purpose vehicle, the international opinion is that Ireland has created a pathway to enable the country to come out of the banking crisis and help economic recovery.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: The third pillar relates to the enterprise economy, the indigenous sector, which is still quite resilient in terms of export orientation and inward investment. There is still investment coming into the country. We need some positive thinking. The Government is at least focused on a pathway out of the crisis.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: The Opposition is focused on electoral gain to the detriment of sound policy.
- Banking System: Motion (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: If one had an orderly Opposition, there could be ten-minute slots.
- Written Answers — Foreign Conflicts: Foreign Conflicts (30 Mar 2010)
Micheál Martin: I share the Deputy's concern that everything possible must be done to avoid a repeat of the ethnic violence that erupted after the 2007 elections in Kenya, in which it was estimated that over 1,500 people were killed and as many as 600,000 were displaced. Following mediation talks led by the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, an agreement designed to bring an end to the conflict was...