Results 441-460 of 50,683 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: I accept the Deputy's good wishes.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: We also intervened in the South African International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. Now we will work very hard in respect of the EU-Israel Association Council-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----where there has been a significant shift in opinion in the European Union, which is important.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy's sentiments when he says we do not see the problem. Of course we see the problem and we have made it very clear that we see the issue here regarding assessment of need. I am not making any excuses; I am just focused on solutions. I have heard precious little from anybody here on the Opposition side in terms of a solution-driven approach.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: I have heard a lot of rhetoric but have heard little on the solution front.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: Equally, the Deputy referenced the High Court decision. I have no intention of going back on the standing operating procedures, but I believe that when the High Court makes a decision, it is clinicians who should ultimately decide on the nature and type of provision of therapy, medicine or anything. The last Government did not follow through for different reasons. There was not agreement...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: This Government is adamant it will deal with that aspect. It is only one aspect, one strand of it. It needs to be looked at because there needs to be a framework that allows therapists to intervene more quickly in providing services to children. An assessment of need, by the way, is not a static thing nor should it be. As a child develops, the child needs ongoing review. That is why the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Health Service Executive has been highlighting the court decision for quite some time. That is the answer to the Deputy's question on that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is not correct in that at all. He asked specifically about the law and I gave him a straight answer that this Government will deal with that aspect of it. However, the outgoing Government dealt with a whole load of other issues pertaining to this. For example, 4,162 assessments were completed in 2024, a 30% increase on 2023, and that upward trend is continuing with the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Níl an ceart aici. Níl mórán déanta aici maidir le fadhb na tithíochta. Tá sé sin soiléir.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has not addressed the core point I made. We need private sector investment. The Deputy used the phrase "vulture funds". I believe-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: We are back to the heckling because the Deputies do not like the answers. I believe in public sector investment. We have provided 48,000 social houses alone in the last four years. We have the highest level of social housing provided by any Government in over 20 or 30 years. That is a fact.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: We exceeded our targets in Housing for All, with more than 30,000 houses over the last three to four years. That is a fact, but it is not enough. We need private sector investment. Deputy McDonald calls it vulture funds. We need institutional funding in the country to supplement the State-level investment. That is the problem. In the last election, Sinn Féin had proposals that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: Those proposals are why the people did not give Sinn Féin any ringing endorsement of its housing promises. It failed to convince people about them.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: Aontaím go hiomlán leis an Teachta. Is uafásach ar fad an méid atá ag tarlú i nGaza leis an gcogadh uafásach agus na mílte daoine, leanaí go háirithe, ag fáil bháis de dheasca polasaithe Rialtas Iosrael. I agree with the Deputy's presentation of what is an absolutely barbaric and appalling situation in Gaza. There is absolutely no...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: It is absolutely unacceptable that innocent people were abducted and have remained hostages for so long after 7 October. That was also an appalling, barbaric crime by Hamas, which needs, in my view, to stop the war and disband, because it has caused nothing but misery to its own people. The Israeli Government needs to stop what is happening right now. We need a ceasefire. We need a...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: To be fair, it is more than just words from Ireland. We have contributed significant funding to Palestine, to the Palestinian Authority and to UNRWA, which has been much maligned but is the only UN agency that has the capacity not only to facilitate the surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza but also to facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza. Most people will admit that privately if they are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: The RTB rent index is the most reliable indicator for rent prices. It was published on 15 May and, according to the RTB, the standardised average rent for new tenancies rose nationally by 5.5% year-on-year to €1,680 in quarter 4 of 2024 while the rents for existing tenancies rose by 4.6% year-on-year to €1,440. These are high rents. We are under no illusions about that. Even...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: Look at it overall and look at the context. Across the European Union and many western economies, they are having this dilemma in the mismatch of housing demand and supply. In a European Union context, Ireland is probably doing more than most in increasing housing supply.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Micheál Martin: In terms of real investment in dwellings, the Irish economy registered the fourth largest increase across the 27 EU countries. The recent ESRI publication comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales found that on a per capita basis, Ireland and Northern Ireland had the highest rate of house building and Ireland and Scotland had the highest rate of...