Results 21-40 of 50,683 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this. I appreciate that the school is open to and wants to develop a special class. That is good because some schools are less proactive in respect of this, so I appreciate the efforts by the board. The school will be kept under consideration, I understand, for a special class for 2026-27. I will talk to the Minister of State, Michael Moynihan, who is with...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: I think we will need a regulatory framework governing drones. We have to have a common-sense approach to the use of drones. Did the Deputy refer to 300 food deliveries?

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: We have to examine all of that because that potentially clearly leads to significant congestion, security issues, safety issues, noise issues, amenity issues and the need for physical activity. There might be certain cases where people need such a service or it could be effective if you are infirm or elderly. I can understand that. The Deputy has raised a lot of issues. We need a policy...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: Again, I will work with the Minister to raise the issue the Deputy has raised. Obviously, there is a very extensive school building programme. There was a need for additional capital to be allocated to education. The Minister for public expenditure has agreed with the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and that capital has been allocated now. Hopefully that might result in further completions this...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. EnergyCloud is a significant community-based organisation providing a significant service to the community, to the public at large and to the national effort. If he can send that to me, I will forward it to the Minister for climate.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: We will look through the detail and get the Deputy a comprehensive response.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: The testimony of Paul Guy has been very impactful. As I said earlier to Deputy Bacik, who raised this question on Leaders' Questions, it is very traumatic for families generally with loved ones in nursing homes but particularly for the Guy family. Legislation is already in place to deal with what happened in these nursing homes. We do not need new adult safeguarding legislation to deal...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: It was abuse. We have a regulatory authority and legislation there. A lot of work has been done in the past year on adult safeguarding, the policy is near completion and there will be legislation. What happened should not have happened and there are already laws there to deal with it. Implication and oversight are required.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: Quite a significant number of economists, along with the Housing Agency, are saying that measures taken by this House in 2021 restricted supply, so a lot of people are saying there is a clear need for reform of the rent pressure zones. The vast majority of commentators have said that. The key objective is to protect existing tenants and create certainty so that if someone invests in the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: There is a lot of evidence already. The Deputy can read the Housing Finance Agency's report and other reports. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has said this as well.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Bacik wants to keep the existing system going forever. The legislation ends at the end of the year so, therefore, we have to give a period for the introduction of new legislation.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: It is a very serious issue. The National Shared Services Office, NSSO, is responsible for payroll for civil servants and officeholders. The Minister has commissioned an external audit to go into the NSSO to examine in a much more comprehensive, forensic and detailed way the issues that have arisen. There needs to be further validation of what has emerged, particularly in terms of the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: It is not the central issue about this legislation.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: Deputy O'Gorman asked a question so he should have the good manners to listen to the answer. It is not central.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: If it is included or extra, the Deputy should not make it central because, fundamentally, the impact of the Bill will be symbolic. About €600,000 worth of goods alone in the past six years-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is not going to listen. I am saying that the figure for goods over the past six years was €600,000. The Minister is examining that aspect of it in terms of services. The Deputy knows as well that the legal ground here is extremely narrow anyway. I read the entirety of the Attorney General's opinion about this and it did not change fundamentally from the opinions of...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: I do not know. I do not deal with the operational practices of An Garda Síochána. I do not intervene in those. I was very surprised to see this. This is not Government policy but I will revert to the Deputy and ask for communication to be sent to him. I will talk to the Minister for justice about this.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: That is a fair presentation. I will talk to the Minister for justice, reflecting on what the Deputy said. There is an absence of consequences within that space before formally referring people to the juvenile justice system - which we are reluctant to do, to give young people a chance - and, on the other hand, ensuring people cannot just behave with abandon and no consequences. I take the...

Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. The Government accepts there are genuine maintenance backlogs in terms of roads across the length and breadth of the country, particularly in south Kerry and Kerry more generally. We have allocated additional money to Kerry County Council for the regular maintenance of the network. In respect of the Killarney bypass, I tend to call...

Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions (11 Jun 2025)

Micheál Martin: It is the Cork-Kerry economic corridor. The Macroom and Baile Bhuirne bypass has been extraordinarily transformational environmentally, on public health grounds in terms of the air, on a road safety basis and also in terms of access and opening up Kerry to the economy of the wider hinterland right across the south west. Cork people are always anxious to benefit Kerry people as much as we...