Results 29,881-29,900 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: 6. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his meeting with Atheist Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6610/15]
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: 7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his meeting with representatives of the Jewish faith and the Islamic community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6611/15]
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: 12. To ask the Taoiseach if he has met religious leaders since the referendum campaign on marriage equality began; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19224/15]
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. He outlined a series of meetings he had with the Humanist Association of Ireland, Atheist Ireland and the Catholic Church and Church of Ireland. Let me move quickly to the issue concerning our schools, and school patronage in particular. The Taoiseach will recall that in the early days of Deputy Ruairí Quinn's time as Minister for Education and...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Government made a commitment and the Constitutional Convention was in favour of one. We were told there would be one but the Government did not proceed with it. I just want to find out why.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: We are four years into the term of the current Government and I am entitled to ask the Taoiseach why the Government did not proceed with the blasphemy referendum. Was it dissuaded from doing so by others? Did the Atheist Association, on which I have a question, raise the issue of the Angelus? It made very strong representations to RTE. I believe it is overdoing it in this regard. One...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Commissions of Investigation (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: 3. To ask the Taoiseach the position regarding the letter he mentioned during the Order of Business on 28 January 2015 that he received from a legal firm in respect of the terms of reference on the commission of inquiry to be established following the Guerin report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5475/15]
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Commissions of Investigation (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: I wanted to raise this issue some months ago but with the passage of time our getting to deal with it has been somewhat delayed, but I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I put it to the Taoiseach that Deputy Alan Shatter and his legal firm wrote to the Taoiseach and, I think, the Ceann Comhairle and essentially wanted to delay the terms of reference-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Commissions of Investigation (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: At all.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Commissions of Investigation (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: Not on this particular one.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Commissions of Investigation (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: Deputy Shatter had written to the Ceann Comhairle before.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Commissions of Investigation (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: Okay.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Commissions of Investigation (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach said in his reply that the Government had intended to have a two hour debate on the commission of inquiry. That debate was stopped. The Ceann Comhairle made a ruling that there would be no debate. I find it extraordinary that a Member of the House would seek to suppress a debate on the establishment of an inquiry because of his particular perspective on that inquiry and its...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): National Security Committee (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: In light of the horrific and brutal murders in Tunisia, there clearly is a need for the national security committee to meet quite regularly because surveillance works. There is another side to the equation and while I understand the balance between surveillance and privacy rights for citizens, the most fundamental obligation of Government is to protect its citizens and that means proper...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: No context was attached to any of this. Sometimes, it pays to say one was wrong.
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: Surely the Taoiseach cannot believe it is credible for him to say he did not increase VAT. He increased it from 21% to 23% in his first budget. Could he please acknowledge that it actually happened so that everybody else need not scratch their heads wondering whether it happened or whether it was a figment of their imaginations? The Taoiseach was very clear that it did not happen. Today...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: Sinn Féin said we should tell the troika to go home and forget about the bailout, although it was needed to sustain education and social welfare spending. Although many falsehoods were propagated to the Irish people, what had to be done had to be done.
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: The same problem applies to Syriza in Greece.
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: Syriza made statements on which it could not possibly deliver, and we are in a crisis. I return to a very simple question I asked the Taoiseach. Does he accept that he got it wrong when he said VAT, income tax and PRSI were not increased? Does he accept that those three basic points were wrong?
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jun 2015)
Micheál Martin: What about VAT? Was it increased?