Results 39,341-39,360 of 50,917 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: On 3 November last, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade announced his decision to close the Irish Embassy in the Vatican to save approximately €450,000. For many reasons, that was a wrong decision. Ireland needs as extensive a diplomatic footprint as it can have across the globe. That has been always my position. When one has difficulties with particular states, a...

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach's comments on child abuse are unworthy. I was the first Minister to initiate an inquiry into abuse in a diocese in this country; it was the Ferns inquiry. I was the first to open up the position on industrial schools, a matter about which a Government of which the Taoiseach was a member-----

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: -----refused to do anything.

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: My record on opening up these issues and having independent inquiries is beyond reproach.

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: It is beyond reproach and I have no issue with the Government's position on that.

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: It is not fair to blame former holders of the office of ambassador, if that was the implication, for failing to have necessary influence-----

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: -----on the Vatican and its approach to child abuse. That was the clear implication in the Taoiseach's response. With respect, I have not hyped up anything here or gone with any current trend. I will tell the Taoiseach why. The proposal to close the embassy to the Vatican was brought before me, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I rejected it, just as I rejected the decision to close the...

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: -----because I believe in the idea that Ireland should have as extensive a diplomatic footprint as it can.

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: What I decided to do, as then Minister for Foreign Affairs, was find an alternative set of savings, reducing in many embassies-----

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: -----the numbers of staff but keeping a presence on the ground in many of the smaller eastern European states. There clearly were alternatives. Those who have hyped up this for political reasons are members of the Taoiseach's political party and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Creighton, who should be supporting the Tánaiste or, at least, acting...

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: -----but she has made all the running in the Taoiseach's party on the embassy in the Vatican.

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: When the Taoiseach says "review", what does he mean? Since the budget, there are been ten such reviews of various policies and we have got no concrete clarification or specifics around those reviews.

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: It has not happened yet.

Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: We live in a democracy.

Written Answers — Constitutional Amendments: Constitutional Amendments (14 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: Question 606: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on whether it will be possible to hold the children's rights referendum in 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1933/12]

Order of Business (14 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: Who?

Order of Business (14 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach is smiling, he does not seem to know.

Constitutional Amendments (14 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: As part of Question No. 9 I asked the Taoiseach about the intended timetable for the establishment and the work of the constitutional convention, whether one exists and, if so, whether it will be put before the House. As the party that brought in the 1937 Constitution, a republican constitution emulated by others throughout the globe, the challenge facing us is to enhance it. It is an...

Constitutional Amendments (14 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: There is an issue in terms of how many referendums the Government can get through. The timetable of the convention is important because one year of the lifetime of this Oireachtas has gone. The Oireachtas needs reform. If anything, things are going backwards in terms of parliamentary democracy. The Seanad is a separate question but the Taoiseach has stated that it only makes sense if it...

Constitutional Amendments (14 Feb 2012)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate that, but my question relates to the work of the constitutional convention. Will it be denied the opportunity to tease out that issue and to put its views?