Results 31,241-31,260 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Order of Business (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: It is not logical to allow someone to table a motion and then prevent them from speaking to the motion. There is no logic to that. If the Government thought the establishment of this inquiry encroached upon the courts, it would not have brought forward this motion. Of course that would have been unacceptable. My humble opinion is that there is no logic here. Perhaps what we were told...

Order of Business (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: We have debated them for the last year and a half.

Order of Business (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: I find it extraordinary and almost unprecedented that the House is being asked to set up a very serious commission of investigation into matters of grave concern in regard to the administration of justice in this country, issues that have led to the resignations of a confidential recipient to a Minister, a Garda Commissioner and a Minister for Justice who, in a letter to the Taoiseach, said...

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: The Garda authority is due in here very shortly.

Deaths of Former Members: Expressions of Sympathy (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: Táimid bailithe anseo inniu chun ár n-ómós agus ár meas dár gcara dílis, John Carty, a chur in iúl. Fear lách, cineálta agus gnóthach ab ea John. D'oibrigh sé go dian dícheallach, Domhnach is dálach, ar son mhuintir Mhaigh Eo agus ar son mhuintir na tíre. Bhí muinín aige as a mhuintir. Bhí siad...

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: That answer is simply not good enough. The Taoiseach is the boss.

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: In 2010, Fine Gael Deputies rightly raised the issue of this drug therapy in the Dáil with the then Tánaiste and Minister, former Deputy Mary Harney. According to the letter from Dr. Philip Murphy, he said that initially the HSE agreed to fund ten patients with PNH but despite attempts by him to get the funding agreed in the past two to three years, he recently had correspondence...

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: It is not, as the Minister tried to indicate last night, to do with the efficacy of the drug. There is no issue with the efficacy of the drug according to the leading clinicians in this area around the world. What is happening is that the position has hardened in the past two to three years in the health area, and for innovative drug therapies. The consequence of that is that two citizens...

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: The story has changed in the past eight to nine days. Senator Thomas Byrne was told in the Seanad last week that the discussions with the drug company had ended and there was some drug company bashing. We do not need any of that. We need the Minister to take an approach that is hard-nosed, with his sleeves rolled up to ensure that patients can have access to a drug therapy that can...

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: It is not a pilot programme. That is a misnomer. One either has a clinical trial or not.

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach is doing so. Ten people are on the drug and two are not. That is discrimination.

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: Two hundred people in the UK are on the drug therapy. What we are getting in response from the Taoiseach is not good enough.

Leaders' Questions (28 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: I want to raise a situation that is essentially a matter of life and death for a number of people in this country. In particular, I have been approached by Mr. John Duggan from Meath and people representing Ms Mary Gorman from Ballinakill, both of whom have been denied Soliris, a drug therapy which can have a dramatic impact on patients with a rare blood disorder. The condition, that...

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Investigations (27 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Minister for her reply. Will she indicate what are the circumstances in which interpreters should be brought in? It seems to be a basic service for somebody from another country with very poor English. An interpreter should be a basic provision for somebody like this who is reporting a crime. We must thank the landlord and the friends of this person, who were in a different...

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Investigations (27 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Acting Chairman for facilitating this Topical Issue debate and the Minister for Justice and Equality for coming before the House. I ask her to discuss the apparent failure by the Garda and HSE properly to investigate the appalling abuse of an individual, Anna Bubula. The circumstances surrounding the case were covered comprehensively in yesterday's Irish Examiner, as the...

European Council: Statements (27 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: I will put a number of questions to the Minister of State. One relates to the Government's tendency to wait for other countries to negotiate on debt issues. For example, the substantial reduction in interest rates was essentially the work of the then Greek Government, which sought and secured four times what our Government requested. Regarding retrospective recapitalisation, the...

European Council: Statements (27 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: This is why there is a degree of paranoia and anxiety in many of the former states of the Soviet Union that are now free and in the EU. The most overriding consideration that many of them have is to avoid returning to what they experienced. These are legitimate issues. What is happening in Ukraine is not satisfactory and what Russia is doing cannot be ignored by Europe. This is not to...

European Council: Statements (27 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: What is happening to the Baltic states is provocative, dangerous and unnecessary. Europe must be on its guard. Of course, there is no perfect policy, but the degree of naivety regarding the Russian agenda is breathtaking in how it has been articulated by a number of parties and Independents in the House. Will the Minister of State comment on this point?

European Council: Statements (27 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: That is not true.

European Council: Statements (27 Jan 2015)

Micheál Martin: That is what we are doing. The apologists-----