Results 31,621-31,640 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: Unsurprisingly, the Taoiseach has found no room to acknowledge how European policies negotiated by others and automatically extended to Ireland gave him billions towards achieving targets. Today our economy is undeniably stronger than it was, and equally undeniable is the fact that the core reason for this has nothing to do with the Government.
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: Deputy Reilly was removed from the health portfolio because of his miserable failures in the Department. That is why the Taoiseach did that to him.
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: With the greatest of respect, he is the last person in Cabinet who should open his mouth today because he is the personification of why people have lost confidence in the Government.
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: It is the skills and hard work of the people that have helped our economy, not the short-term, damaging and divisive policies of the Government. These skills were built up over decades, and the areas of the economy which have grown are ones which were present and growing before 2011, particularly foreign direct investment. This week there will once again be major demonstrations over the...
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: The Minister, Deputy Coveney, knows all about it because he conceived it.
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: The usage-based charge was defended by the party from the very start in the NewERA document. We have ended up with a situation where a charge is being imposed to fund meters which are pointless, to maintain a bureaucracy which no one wants and to justify an accounting gimmick which may not work. The Government has no one to blame for this fiasco but itself.
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: This was a defining issue in May, whether the Government likes it or not. The Taoiseach said he understood the message loud and clear. The Cabinet spent four months preparing a final answer, which lasted four weeks. Why can the Government not just bow to the inevitable and end this issue? Irish Water should be abolished and this charge should be suspended immediately.
- 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: Reflecting on the debate and the speeches we have just heard, I would like to remark that the great phrase, "Frankfurt's way or Labour's way", does not sound too dissimilar to "Europe can bugger off".
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: No, it is not. It is on foot of what I have just heard. In many respects, the debate is a perfect illustration of why the people have for a long time and in ever greater numbers lost confidence in this Government. Elected with the largest majority in our history and even backed by the genuine goodwill of non-supporters, Fine Gael and the Labour Party had an unprecedented opportunity to...
- Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: Hear, hear.
- Business of Dáil (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: I do not know. I am making the point.
- Business of Dáil (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: We are meant to be experiencing a democratic revolution and this is all meant to be changed. Having Leaders Questions, for example-----
- Business of Dáil (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: I would trade any time on my record in the Dáil or in committees as a Minister answering questions. I would do that any time.
- Business of Dáil (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: I never had any difficulty in that regard. We are having Leaders Questions at 5.30 p.m. The Order of Business will be at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. tonight.
- Business of Dáil (9 Dec 2014)
Micheál Martin: That will be after spending six hours in here.