Results 261-280 of 51,889 for speaker:Micheál Martin

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising an important issue. I accept fully her bona fides in moving this measure. As she said, we tabled a timed amendment to the legislation last year. I will talk to the relevant Ministers and the Government about the implications of adopting such a measure. We have made significant improvements in this wider area of the past number of years. We will look at it...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: We are using that money. We have used substantial resources in terms of the retrofitting programme-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----fuel poverty, the increase in the fuel allowance payment-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----and extending it into the working family payment will which will bring in a significant cohort of working people who are on relatively low incomes. We are spending an unprecedented amount on funding, targeting the measures. The quote the Deputy used is a bit distorted because I said it in the context of Deputy Murphy wanting universal credits for everybody, irrespective of income or...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Minister is engaging with them. We need to do everything we can to get prices down.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: The bus driver is very important.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: That is not true.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: We will not be introducing price controls. They failed in the past and would fail again. In terms of child poverty, consistent poverty is the key metric, not relative poverty. The Deputy did not qualify which he was talking about.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: Consistent poverty is what we have to deal with. Our child poverty programme in the budget was very significant, the highest in a very long time. The once-off payments were just that, for two years in a row and before that. During the Covid pandemic and the energy crisis, we had to intervene. They not sustainable over the decade and they cannot just keep going on. We would not have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: We do tax them. We have a very progressive tax system-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----which basically means income inequality has reduced despite very significant, strong economic growth. We believe in enterprise; the Deputy does not. He has a broader view of how markets and economies should run-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----and that is fundamental to every specific proposal he introduces on a given issue in here.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: It has to be seen in the round in terms of what kind of society we want.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: I respectfully suggest that the people do not quite want the society the Deputy advocates.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: We just had Leaders’ Questions and no one asked that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: It is quite interesting that a representative of a far-left party like Deputy Murphy is an advocate for universal credits, which benefit the wealthiest in society as well as everybody else. That is quite an extraordinary contradiction of the viewpoints he often articulates. The Minister has established a national energy affordability task force because there is an issue with energy...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: We want to build infrastructure, water and grid, which are central to housing. That is what enables us to build more houses.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: Water, grid and public transport are the fundamental pieces of infrastructure that make house building possible.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: A total of €4 billion alone in current expenditure is being provided for housing for 2026. This is an increase of €600 million. Key elements of this will go to homeless services-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Oct 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----to ensure that local authorities can provide emergency accommodation. Well, it has to be done. For God's sake, we have to provide it.