Results 8,581-8,600 of 50,134 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Good Friday Agreement (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: I think Deputy Durkan is correct that many people forget the enormous impact the Good Friday Agreement had at the time. I was a youngster when the Troubles started. I witnessed many atrocities, as we all did, on a regular basis with daily news bulletins and so on. When the breakthrough came ,when Albert Reynolds and John Major announced the Downing Street Declaration, it was something...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Northern Ireland (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79 and 115 together. The Good Friday Agreement says we can best honour those who died or were injured, and their families, through a firm dedication to reconciliation, tolerance and mutual trust, and to the protection and vindication of the human rights of all. This has framed the Government’s approach to the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Good Friday Agreement (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: On Deputy Durkan's points, the opportunity does exist. The 25th anniversary is rightly to celebrate the courage of all those involved in arriving at the Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago and marking the fact a whole generation grew up in peace and not in conflict in comparison with what had happened prior to that. Equally, it is an opportunity to pivot to the future, and the appointment of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Passport Services (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: As I said, we are confirming that it will be launched shortly. The word "shortly" is a very beloved word.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Passport Services (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: However, it will be shortly. I am positive about that aspect of it. Only recently it was extended to MEPs, who did not have access to it, but I decided to give a small number of them access as well. MLAs will now get access. I do not have information about the specific week or whenever we will have it. However, it will be happening shortly and it is ready to go. As I said earlier, 90%...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Passport Services (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: The evidence so far this year in terms of the response is good; 100% of people are getting call backs and 230,000, which was the figure I gave earlier, have already been processed in three months. It is a good service and it is working well. Regarding MPs, I did not realise that Sinn Féin's MPs were that anxious to exercise their mandate. I know they ran for election but they do...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Passport Services (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: Sinn Féin's members were conspicuously absent during the Brexit debate-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Passport Services (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: -----and it would have been very helpful if we had had more Irish voices at the time arguing about Brexit.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Passport Services (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: I am glad the Deputy has given Members of my party credit for Irish independence. I appreciate that. That is a bit different from the normal narrative that comes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Good Friday Agreement (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76 , 78 , 101, 112 and 116 together. The full and effective operation of all of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement is a key priority for this Government, across all three strands: the power-sharing institutions in Northern Ireland; the North South Ministerial Council and the cross-Border bodies; and the east-west institutions. The agreement is...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: Addressing the status of undocumented Irish citizens in the United States remains a priority for the Government and is raised on an ongoing basis in our engagements with the Administration and political leaders in the United States. The Taoiseach raised immigration matters directly with President Biden during his visit to the White House on St. Patrick's Day. I also discussed immigration...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: We have done so.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: No, we took an initiative last year whereby we had an amnesty. That was regularising people.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy said we had not regularised people.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: We took a very significant initiative at the early stages of this Government to regularise the situation for people who were here for a considerable length of time. The result of that is that thousands of people are legally resident who were in various centres and so on. We are consistently endeavouring to get housing for them and over time, they work with the local authorities. There...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: There has to be a balance with migration policy. We are in a situation now, because we are in the European Union, where there is complete mobility among the 27 member states that are home to close to 450 million people. That mobility actually extends beyond the EU and includes the European Economic Area, EEA, countries as well. We allocated 40,000 work permits last year and we had the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: They are not valid at all because there are Irish people undocumented in the US for 25 years and more.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Undocumented Irish in the USA (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: There was a very significant amnesty scheme announced so I am not clear why they would not have been regularised in the context of that scheme.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Passport Services (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: First, I would like to highlight the positive position of the passport service. It is successfully meeting the current high demand. All turnaround times are at their target level and there are no backlogs. Over 230,000 passports have been issued in the first three months of 2023. I have fully supported the provision of an online portal for passport queries from MLAs from the Northern...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Foreign Conflicts (21 Mar 2023)

Micheál Martin: Yes. It was a blatant attack on people, businesses and houses. It was quite shocking. There was a trauma visited upon children and a sense of insecurity and of fear. It is designed, in line with Mr. Smotrich's comments, to force people out and to create terror. I am in no doubt about that. We have to work with other countries to try to really escalate the international response to this.