Results 36,541-36,560 of 50,909 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: We did not design it.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach should not mislead the House.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: The edifice nearly crumbled last Saturday week across there.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: Yes, but the Taoiseach does not make them.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: I asked a question on the consultation there had been with social groups to gain a full understanding of the reality of the impact of the cut to the respite grant for people on the ground. Has the Taoiseach met the Carers' Association recently? Did the Taoiseach meet with the federation of organisations involved in disability for example? We learned in the past week that the Economic...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: That is not true.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: We increased the payments dramatically, including the respite grant, when the money was available.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: I refer to the nature of the Government's dialogue with the social partners and also with outside groups and bodies. The four members of Government who form the economic management council have not got a grip on the key economic targets or even the budgetary process. I outlined this argument in my reply to the Budget Statement last week. Part of the problem is that the council appears to...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: That budget measure could have the effect of wiping out courses in colleges of further education. If the Government - and, particularly, the economic management council - had engaged in proper structured dialogue with stakeholders in the first instance, these kinds of cut might have been avoided. The students in this case are vulnerable and need more protection than most. The Taoiseach's...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Official Engagements (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: I have not seen the table but appreciate it is normal and therefore do not complain about it. I will look at it later. However, I am conscious that the Justice for the Forgotten group has made numerous attempts to seek a meeting with the Taoiseach. It represents relatives of victims of the worst atrocities that occurred during the Troubles in Dublin and Monaghan. Last week was the 40th...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: To ask the Taoiseach the progress there has been on his plan to abolish the National Economic and Social Development Office and place the National Economic and Social Council on a statutory basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50873/12]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Social Partnership (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: To ask the Taoiseach if he has met the social partners recently; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52234/12]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Official Engagements (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: To ask the Taoiseach the number of non-party political events which he has attended in each month during 2012 which have been handled by the protocol section of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47363/12]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Official Engagements (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: I have not yet seen the table referred to in the reply. It is a good thing for a Taoiseach to make himself or herself available for a large number of events, but there is an important question as to whether this Taoiseach is focusing on events where he will not be challenged in any significant way. Last Sunday, for example, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry said it was thrilled by the...

Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: It was the Taoiseach who leaked it. He told the journalist.

Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: We had the most regressive budget last year and again this year.

Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: Did it walk back in to add taxes on lower paid workers and cut child benefit, jobseeker's benefit and the respite grant for 77,000 people? In so doing it has broken every promise it made to the people of Ireland prior to the election. It is no wonder a newspaper columnist described it as a junta of Judases. There is a real sense of betrayal across the land given what has occurred. On...

Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: Or that of the Labour Party.

Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: I never said that.

Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2012)

Micheál Martin: Another columnist this morning described the interview that the Taoiseach conducted last Wednesday evening regarding the budget as "a stream of banal inanities", a "crumbling of language" and a load of "inarticulate drivel". I would not apply all of that to what the Taoiseach has just said but I would apply it to the initial part of his response.