Results 661-680 of 50,909 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)
Micheál Martin: I have met them. We discussed one of the critical issues in towns and villages across the country, which is the need to free up capacity, for example to local builders if they are developing a housing estate of 20 houses or 50 houses so that they would be able to develop their own treatment facility according to the specifications set by Uisce Éireann. That would then be subject to...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)
Micheál Martin: I suggest that maybe if you guys have a monopoly on it over everybody else-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)
Micheál Martin: I will say no more than that.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)
Micheál Martin: I was not in government in 2013.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)
Micheál Martin: What is the Deputy saying about Askeaton?
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)
Micheál Martin: I have spoken to Uisce Éireann representatives about this and they have a national mapping exercise already. With the best will in the world, if we want to build 50,000 houses per year and if we give an extra couple of billion euro to Uisce Éireann over the coming years, it will have to concentrate that spend on the big cities and big areas of population. Therefore, for smaller...
- 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.