Results 32,041-32,060 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: This is outrageous.

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: Nobody suggested that; I am making the point that, like everything the Government does, it is about presentation.

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: Yesterday, Deputy Michael McGrath highlighted this issue and pointed out that the Government was fortunate-----

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: -----in having a technical restatement that provided €2 billion in fiscal room. It appears the last thing the Government wants is an informed debate on the economy because that might get in the way of its campaign to claim credit for everything. The return to growth has been helped by fiscal consolidation. There is no doubt about this, but fiscal consolidation is not the reason...

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: The hard substance of these changes is nothing but a continued confirmation of the dominance of Fine Gael’s core right-wing beliefs. Yet again, the largest benefit has been given to the highest income earners.

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: The much-trailed claw backs merely altered this slightly. A person on €200,000 will gain four times as much as a person on the minimum wage. The Government can dress it up whatever way it wants, but fairness it is not. Of course, what most people will gain from the budget will be set against the new water charges they will begin to pay in January.

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: In the past three years the Tánaiste managed the incredible task of talking like a left-wing dissident in her party while implementing an almost Thatcherite welfare policy. She cut €2 billion from the weakest sections of society and told people to simply get off the couch and look after themselves. She cut support towards funeral costs and then talked about how high funeral...

Financial Resolutions 2015 - Financial Resolution No. 3: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: In every part of our country there are families facing the reality of a two-tiered, deeply unfair recovery. The way to assess this budget is not how many headlines it gets but how much it helps those who are being left behind. No matter what way you look at it, the budget has failed this test. Yesterday the Government delivered the first of two election budgets. It had no social economic...

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: That is not true.

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: There is €35 million allocated in the budget for mental health services, but that is approximately €15 million short of what should be in place by now if programme for Government commitments had been honoured. The relevant Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, indicated last year that she had a promise from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform that the €15...

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: This suggests a sinister turn in politics and there has been a pattern in the Government's behaviour in this regard. It is whether it concerned Deputy Mick Wallace and the former Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter-----

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: -----or the hospital chief executive officers who wrote to the Government and subsequently saw details of pay in the media and the public domain.

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: Now a Deputy from the Taoiseach's party who commented on the McNulty appointment-----

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: There are details on the front of a newspaper, but from where did they come? How did they get into the public domain? It is sinister.

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: It is a very serious matter. Across society people are afraid to speak out against the Government.

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: In the health service, people are afraid to speak out.

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: The Minister of State should stop his trivial, infantile interjections. This is a serious matter.

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: There should be an inquiry, as people want to be able to write to the Taoiseach's office with a degree of certainty that the issues would be confidential. It is a very sinister development.

Order of Business (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach should check it out.

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2014)

Micheál Martin: That is the opposite, as every commentator has acknowledged.