Results 38,401-38,420 of 50,916 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: Question 338: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if officials in her Department will be involved in discussions with the Department of Education and Skills in relation to the changes in childcare provision moving towards the Scandinavian model being introduced here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21304/12]

Order of Business (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: No, they were not. It was said they were too complex.

Order of Business (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: It is a joke the way this is being dealt with.

Modern Languages Initiative (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: The decision by the Minister for Education and Skills to abolish the modern languages in primary schools initiative was extremely regressive and shortsighted. After benefiting 550 primary schools and thousands of young children for 13 years, this positive initiative will shortly come to an end. The benefits of the scheme far outweigh its cost. In times of financial difficulty, initiatives...

Modern Languages Initiative (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: I am extremely disappointed by that dishonest response. It is not good enough to blame PISA for this. The vast majority of the 550 schools participating in the initiative do not face problems with numeracy or literacy. Stop trying to pretend that we are getting rid of a good scheme in order to introduce a broader literacy and numeracy programme. That is the kind of dishonesty that drives...

Modern Languages Initiative (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: That is not true. No one called for its abolition.

Modern Languages Initiative (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: Disgraceful.

Official Engagements (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: With regard to the Pat Finucane inquiry, the Taoiseach, on behalf of the Government, is party to an international agreement. He represents all of us with regard to the fulfilment and delivery of this agreement. As the Taoiseach is aware there is no sense of any breakthrough on getting the inquiry to which all sides have signed up. Does he see any light at the end of that tunnel? Have his...

Official Engagements (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: It was not - he never dealt with it.

Official Engagements (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: He never asked him.

Official Engagements (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: No.

Official Engagements (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: Does the Taoiseach remember the Fine Gael document, "Credit where Credit is Due"?

Official Engagements (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: It is Frankfurt's way or Labour's way.

Order of Business (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: With regard to the situation pertaining to Deputy Mick Wallace, his statement last Thursday morning on RTE that he knowingly under-declared VAT to the Revenue and the subsequent public debate that has developed, which has been very widespread and has been in all the main media since then, I put it to the Taoiseach that the scale of the issue is substantial. I know the Deputy offered to make...

Order of Business (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: I accept that.

Leaders' Questions (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: This week we had the development with regard to the intervention by the European authorities on the Spanish bank debt and the decision to recapitalise Spanish bank debt by adding €100 million to the sovereign debt of Spain. Does the Taoiseach accept it is a bad deal overall for Spain, Ireland and Europe in the sense that it represents another sticking plaster approach to the resolution of...

Leaders' Questions (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: There was no bank guarantee in Spain, yet the Spanish citizens and the Spanish Government have to cough up €100 billion on the balance sheet. The Taoiseach has just given the House a non-answer. At the beginning of his reply he said that I have no right to speak on behalf of the Spanish Government. It is not a Spanish problem; it is a European problem.

Leaders' Questions (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: It is not just an Irish problem; it is a eurozone crisis and that is the point. The Taoiseach contradicted himself by saying he wrote to all the leaders saying it should be a European mechanism and the link should be severed from the national. He cannot have it both ways. It is not just a Spanish problem anymore. That is the issue and it goes to the core. The Taoiseach should not distort...

Leaders' Questions (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: ------sought a European mechanism to deal with the bank debt and the recapitalisation of the banks. He was saying it was a mistake on the part of the European authorities and they still have lessons to learn about the crisis which has escalated over the past 15 months to become a genuine, eurozone-wide crisis. Even the European Commission-----

Leaders' Questions (12 Jun 2012)

Micheál Martin: -----has said-----