Results 19,681-19,700 of 50,830 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: If things keep going as they are, we will end up with a huge hole in the national budget and people will be paying for declining investment in water services.

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: This increasingly chaotic approach to policy, where ministerial actions ignore and make major problems worse, has been seen in nearly every Department and there is no reason to believe it will end soon. As Fianna Fáil pointed out repeatedly during the past year, housing pressures were escalated by the Tánaiste’s decision to restrict housing benefit and cut and cap rent...

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: At local level, the Tánaiste's party in Dublin, with Fine Gael support, earlier this year tried to cut homeless services until forced to retreat by our councillors. I welcome the new commitment of the Government to allocate emergency funding for homelessness-----

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: -----but this will be merely a sticking plaster if the more serious policy mistake of cutting housing benefit and rent supplement is not reversed. Unfortunately, we have heard nothing from the Government to suggest it understands this. There is growing evidence that the combination of neglect and targeted cutbacks is allowing the scourge of drugs to spread in more and more communities....

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: This shows itself in the reality of what has been happening. There has been a sustained withdrawal of State support for marginalised communities and drugs have been seen as only important as a public order issue. The social devastation that drugs cause is nowhere on the Government's agenda and was missing from the complacent and self-satisfied speeches of the Government we have heard to...

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: -----and brief comments but has been the least accessible Taoiseach of modern times when it comes to detailed interviews or debates.

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: He simply will not participate in them. He retreats behind over-written political attacks and empty claims instead of directly engaging with opponents or the people he is here to serve. Tá easpa físe i gcroílár an Rialtais seo agus ó thaobh na Gaeilge de, is léir nach bhfuil an Rialtas i ndáiríre. Sin é an fáth a d'éirigh an...

Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: Last week, there was a special "Prime Time" programme on the ambulance service. It monitored various counties and also looked at ambulance response times in Dublin. The programme was shocking as it showed interviews of staff and family members who made 999 calls, some of whom received appalling responses. For example, one man explained how he rang 999 as his father had chest pain. Even...

Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: Worryingly, it also found that staffing in some control centres fell below the required safe levels. Does the Taoiseach accept that ambulance response times are far from acceptable? What does he intend to do to address this situation? Does he accept that it is time for a fundamental review of how the ambulance system in the country is organised to ensure proper and effective ambulance...

Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach needs to stop referring to things happening "for the first time" because that is the classical political response to very serious issues. The HIQA report was quite clear that over a ten-year period, there was very significant progress in the training of emergency medical technicians. The whole pre-ambulance care council and so forth which was established more than ten years...

Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: -----that up to 47 vehicles were way beyond the seven years and 500,000 km criteria for emergency ambulances in the State. They had long passed those criteria and still had not been replaced and will not be until next year. We welcome that fact, but it is too late and shows a lack of proactivity. The report, which backs up the "Prime Time" programme, says that EMPs are not being adequately...

Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: It also strongly criticises the issue of ambulance capacity being lost due to the delay in handing over to accident and emergency departments. It is not just a question of saying that it is far from perfect. There are serious issues which are crying out to be addressed-----

Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: -----in terms of the reconfiguration and the move to centralisation. Would the Taoiseach accept that something has gone wrong concerning people's access to ambulances and the response times.

Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: But it is the public sector that should have them.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Management Council Meetings (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: 1. To ask the Taoiseach if the Economic Management Council has met recently. [35603/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Management Council Meetings (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: 3. To ask the Taoiseach the position regarding the Economic Management Council. [37631/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Management Council Meetings (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: 6. To ask the Taoiseach the position regarding the status of the Economic Management Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43794/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Management Council Meetings (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach did not answers Questions Nos. 3 and 6, which I tabled and which basically asked him to make a statement on the position regarding the Economic Management Council and the position regarding the status of the Economic Management Council.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Management Council Meetings (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: The reason I put the questions in that form was that I was amused by the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, who on "The Week in Politics" programme articulated the view that there would be changes to the status of the Economic Management Council, that it would be the subject matter of a review and that he was not entirely happy with its position within Cabinet. Prior to becoming...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Management Council Meetings (9 Dec 2014)

Micheál Martin: Irish Water should be abolished.