Results 34,281-34,300 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: Can we have less of the denial? No one can pinpoint the proposed cuts in the health service at this stage because the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform handed them to the Minister for Health with a take it or leave it ultimatum. Meanwhile, the HSE claims the cuts will amount to €1 billion when they are finished, not €666 million. The Taoiseach is getting many...
- Order of Business (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: It is not agreed. While I do not propose to call a vote on this, I want to say to the Taoiseach that the Ombudsman has turned out to be a very important position in modern society, raising many issues with regard to the interaction between the citizen and the State, particularly in terms of health, welfare and so forth, and, likewise, the position of the Information Commissioner is very...
- Order of Business (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: I thank the Taoiseach.
- Order of Business (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: I have two issues in regard to the programme for Government. First, on the subject of Northern Ireland and the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and St. Andrews Agreement, it is important to acknowledge the excellently produced programme "The Disappeared" which was broadcast last night on RTE and BBC and which was an excellent example of public service broadcasting. It was a...
- Order of Business (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: I will come to the legislation shortly. In terms of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, we amended the Constitution, particularly at Article 29.8, where a new section was introduced stating: "The State may exercise extra-territorial jurisdiction in accordance with the generally recognised principles of international law." In that context, I ask that every effort be made to...
- Order of Business (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: Will the Taoiseach update me in regard to the Government's proposals for legislation in this field and also on the level of co-operation between the Garda and the PSNI in regard to outstanding matters to do with the disappeared?
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: 4. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change and Green Economy last met. [39243/13]
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach's response sums it up. The Cabinet Committee on Climate Change and the Green Economy has met only once in 12 months. The last time this committee met was on 5 November 2012, over a year ago. In the meantime, we have had major work by the UN and the climate change panel and definitive conclusions in terms of human responsibility for a dramatically changing planet, with grave...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: It is striking and defines the Government that the social policy committee met just twice in April and September in the key run-up period to the budget.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: The Economic Management Council met 11 times.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: In other words, we are witnessing the marginalisation of the social policy committee and dimension in the budgetary programme. It is very much a Fine Gael orthodoxy which is moving more to the right day by day. The extraordinary point is that the Labour Party is poodling along with this orientation. The Government has a right-wing approach. The Taoiseach may smile, but it is a fact.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: I am astounded by this. If the social policy committee had met more often, the budget would not have been unfair to old people or disproportionately and dramatically unfair to single parents. The hit the latter group will take on tax credits is extraordinary and shows that there was no poverty-proofing by any social policy committee. The savings of €666 million to €1 billion...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: The favourite tactic of the Taoiseach is to demonise his opponents and attack them because he does not have the substance of a decent response or the capacity to respond to the hard fact that he has just reduced young people’s income on the dole. Please, will he call it this and not anything else? Will he not dress it up as something to do with job activation when it patently has...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: This language is driving people mad. Does the Taoiseach understand this?
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: It is not about confusion. Why can the Taoiseach just not say he took medical cards from people?
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: It is very frustrating to have to listen to this day in, day out.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: I listen to the Taoiseach all the time, but nothing comes out of him, only drivel.
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: 2. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy last met. [39242/13]
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. That the social policy committee has met only twice sums up the orientation of Government policy. The social policy committee exists to oversee the broad thrust of the Government's decisions in this area. An objective assessment of the past three budgets by the ESRI and others clearly demonstrates that they have been weighted against the weaker sections...
- Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2013)
Micheál Martin: It is a distraction from the mean and petty cuts to health and social supports. In this regard, one should bear in mind what has happened in the budget in the areas of health and social policy, and the lack of any proofing of the budget's measures affecting single or separated parents, for example. The tax credit allowance was taken, which can impose a hit on families in the order of...