Results 28,401-28,420 of 50,830 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: No, I certainly did not.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: In fact, if one watches all the interviews I gave, I am very clear about wanting the talks to succeed and wanting the institutions to survive.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It is not Sinn Féin's process, it is everybody's process. It belongs to the people of Ireland. A number of aspects of the agreement would concern people. The financial package does not quite add up and there is a bit of play going on in terms of changing six years to four years and taking money from one department to fund another department. In fact, in some respects, the package is...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: Yes.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: The issues with the UUP and the SDLP have not just started this summer. There has been a lack of inclusivity around how the Executive works. I would put that to the Taoiseach. Will he indicate to me whether any progress was made on the need to involve all parties on the Executive in a much more inclusive way in terms of the governance of Northern Ireland, particularly in terms of the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: One cannot always expect the SDLP to cosy up to any deal the big two parties make, to the exclusion-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I did not advise them at all. I let the SDLP make up its own mind. I did not advise the SDLP at all because I would have had more respect for it in that it has its own processes and is in command of its own situation to make its own informed judgments, which is what it has done.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I will indeed. The one big difference between this agreement and the Stormont House Agreement is that the issues around the past have essentially been parked in this latest iteration. I have always had the view that the British Government and Sinn Féin are probably the two main protagonists who never want full disclosure about the past, but I am concerned about why this agreement parks...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Northern Ireland Issues (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: We welcome it.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It is about the adequacy and the preparation that goes into the answering of questions. The bottom line is that the Taoiseach has never answered the question in respect of the forced resignation of the Garda Commissioner in this House. That is the point I am making to the Taoiseach.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: This should never have gone into the Fennelly commission's terms of reference because the Taoiseach should have answered the questions straight out. We only learned from the media that the Secretary General had been sent out the night before.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach never told us that.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: A Cheann Comhairle, it has to do with the adequacy of questions. The final point I wish to put to the Taoiseach is-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: That is more of it. I asked the Taoiseach about it.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It got through the system.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It did. The point I want to make to the Taoiseach is that at no stage in the past five years has he made any attempt to debate anything with anyone in the public domain. He does not debate in the evenings.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I have been at numerous public meetings to which the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have been invited, but the Taoiseach never turns up. The Taoiseach referred to "Tonight with Vincent Browne" but he never turns up.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: In five years he has never turned up to such a debate, and neither have members of Fine Gael or the Labour Party in the recent past.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It is an important point in terms of whether the Taoiseach is prepared to debate and discuss issues. In my lifetime in this House I have never come across a Taoiseach who will not come to the House to answer questions on the burning issue of the day. He simply does not do it.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Parliamentary Questions (24 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach always seeks to avoid it. That is why I put down the question.