Results 5,001-5,020 of 49,960 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I read recently that the county council had made a submission. That will have to be examined by the Department, obviously, in respect of the wider damage to the area. That figure is a huge amount, and it is illustrative of the cost of climate change. I have no doubt the storm was a climate event. It is an illustration of how we have to move on adaptation and flood relief. I will come...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I agree with the Deputy, basically. I think he has articulated the case very well. There is a shortage of drivers. Obviously, Bus Éireann wants to make sure the safety situation is correct and it has resisted making that change, in its view, in the interests of safety. The world has changed dramatically in relation to life expectancy and people are now in a position to work at ages...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate the Deputy raising the issue. I will talk to the Minister for Health and ask that the information be sent to the Deputy in respect of either timelines or the wider issue of neuro-rehabilitation.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: As the Deputy knows, and as I said earlier, in 2019 the then Government agreed €5 million in funding towards a runway extension project. The estimated cost then was approximately €12 million and that €5 million was contingent on local authority and private investment necessary to complete the project being committed. It said at the time any risks relating to cost...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy knows what I am saying.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: The real meat of this came in December last. Neither of the Deputies mentioned that, but that is the reality. What that is clearly saying is that the €12 million cost is no longer a relevant overall cost. Apparently, the cost is closer to €26 million. There is a public spending code.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: There is all of that. That has to happen. We will come back to the Deputies.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: First of all, the number of social houses being built is way greater than anything in many years. It is record numbers. It means that people are being offered social housing now, which is a good thing.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Government cannot organise every single connection to every single public light in the country. There are people paid and funded to do that. I agree that they should go away and get it done and the person should occupy the house. We need to focus where the issues are - on the utilities or on the local authority. There is a limit to what the Dáil has to-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: They are funded and they should go and do it. Nobody should be 18 years by the way. That is another matter. I do not know the background to the case or the individual. The bottom line is the house has been allocated. They should get the public lighting sorted.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: First of all, it is a bit more complex than that. The European Union is divided and member states have different perspectives for historical and other reasons. Ireland has a very strong pro-Palestinian position in terms of the right of the Palestinians to their own state living in harmony with an Israeli state. We work with approximately eight like-minded countries on a number of issues....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for his presentation and for raising the issue of health services. On the question of who is in charge, factually, I presume the Deputy will be aware that Bernard Gloster is the CEO of the HSE and Deputy Stephen Donnelly is the Minister for Health. There are 26,172 more staff working in our health service now than there were at the beginning of 2020. That is 26,000...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----and I acknowledge that continues to place strain on services but the Deputy has to acknowledge the enormous increase in investment and resources that has occurred.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I welcome that the Deputy acknowledged the Government funding for Clonakilty Community Hospital. It is not a normal pattern of political behaviour on his part to acknowledge Government funding where it happens. I welcome that Government funding has enabled what we both agree is a fantastic service and facility for the people of Clonakilty agus an dúiche mórthimpeall. The...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: It has been a long saga, without question. Issues arose about structures and all the rest of it, but I am in no doubt that in the context of our current services in Crumlin or Temple Street, the sooner we get this hospital built and operational, the better. It will be transformative for children in terms of having single suites, the theatre capacity, infection control and, especially for...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I expect to have the recommendations of the two expert advisory groups, on governance and culture and on contractor fees, human resources and other matters, shortly. They will be incorporated into a new strategy for RTÉ, which will come to the Government. They will bring clarity to the basis on which the Government will make decisions on the future funding of RTÉ. In the interim,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: The referendum covers three areas, the first being a more inclusive definition of the family to ensure the up to 43,000 children born outside marriage in 2022 are finally recognised by our Constitution and have a sense of full inclusion. It is a very children-focused amendment in that context and it takes within its compass new family formations of recent times. Second, it deals with the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes, we have responsibilities and have to do everything we possibly can to prevent such situations from arising, but any of us who deal with young people in life realise the complexities involved. When Minister for Education, I recall people escaping from Trinity House. I recall that education, health and justice were three silos at the time. That was before Tusla and the more co-ordinated...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: In response to retired Mr. Justice Simms’s letter, Tusla is working with officials within the Department of children. There were four documents. The Deputy referred to a bureaucratic response. I think he is referring to the Data Protection Act. The Department formed the view that it did not have a legal basis to process the personal data contained in those three reports-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----and those reports were subsequently deleted from the Department’s records. However, the Department is addressing the substantive issues to which the reports related and that were set out in the correspondence itself. These are issues that have to be dealt with in respect of the personal information relating to any individual or child in the State. However, again, legislation is...