Results 5,441-5,460 of 50,064 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate the Deputy's comments on the embassies. Our diplomatic services provide very high value for money. There is a lot of leadership in the various missions. They are not large in numbers but they are strong in capacity and leadership and I think that is a distinguishing feature of our diplomatic service. Some of that is due to the manner and model of recruitment and the model of...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I was not there then.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: Generally speaking, my own view, for what it is worth, is that Department missions are where the action is. There will always be specific issues where the EU, for example, has envoys. Eamon Gilmore would have been the European Union envoy on the Colombia peace process. The fact he was a former politician should not disqualify him. In fact, it made him a good candidate. They were very...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: We should, perhaps, just pull ourselves back from what tends to happen in the House every now and again where there is a huge noise around a given situation which, perhaps, could have been handled differently. We should be careful if we just say, "No, never again" when this happens. Sometimes the need does not justify it. If one thinks about it, Joe Kennedy is an envoy from the US...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----and ask for an investigation.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: No, I appreciate that and it is not fair on the individual either.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I am speaking out loud here. We need to be very careful that one does not confuse the mission.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I am not referring to Deputy Carthy here but more generally. Our diplomatic service works well in the way it is modelled. In North America, it works superbly well. Long-established links with the Hill, with both sides of the aisle, both Senators and Congress people, are very good. I am not a fan of sending political envoys to override that because one asks who speaks for Ireland then....

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: In regard to the EU, there was a peace process in Bogotá and a significant issue there. In our peace process, external help was very important. We had US envoys. For decommissioning, we had Martti Ahtisaari and Cyril Ramaphosa, and George Mitchell was an envoy who essentially kept the oil flowing in the talks process. It is that kind of thing which I get, but one does not want a...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: Again, we will look at any kind of worthwhile venture which comes forward. We support organisations but we do not supplant existing State funding for schools or whatever. Obviously, the bulk funding for a school would come, presumably, from the local government there or the education department in that area. We could, of course, then assess the situation with regard to any additional...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: Clearly it has had an impact on the Deputy.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: There you are now.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate the points the Deputy has made. The figure of 88,000 this year was very similar to last year due to an intensive advertisement campaign we had before Christmas. We wanted to get people ready, alert and aware so that if they are planning on going on holidays, they should start working now on their passport. That has borne fruit in terms of the surge in passport applications we...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: People ring me in Cork and say, "I'll drive to Dublin. I'll be up at 6 in the morning." They do that because someone has made a mistake or they took out the passport and found it is one or two days beyond the expiry date. We will keep looking at what the Deputy is raising on the urgent cases. I am not clear how we might create that category. However, we will continue to examine it.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Chair raised a number of points. I was alerted by my officials about his enduring interest in securing a consulate in Perth. I appreciate his view on that. We will keep it under review and there will be due diligence. I take his point that eight months is a long time for foreign birth registration numbers, but it is a complex process because it involves a number of generations and...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----military intervention in any war situation. So what we do is non-lethal aid, which is needed. Human resources are vitally needed in a war effort. The Irish Army has donated anti-mining or de-mining equipment to Ukraine.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes, flails. So do we purchase them to donate? One of the issues for Ukraine is the industry is at saturation point in terms of provision of weaponry and so on. There is no point in everyone going in and purchasing to give. They should be in the position to purchase whatever is coming off the manufacturing lines. But we have helped in training. De-mining will be, and is, the biggest...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (1 Feb 2024)

Micheál Martin: What are they? What missiles?