Results 11,761-11,780 of 50,136 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Cabinet took a decision last Tuesday week to publish all of the documentation and pause the decision. It is almost two years since the Government was formed and prior to that there were many more years of discussions and toing and froing. The only objective of the Government is to provide a 21st-century hospital for the women of Ireland and a neonatal centre of excellence. The current...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: There are some who object to it - not the Deputy but some.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: My apologies.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate that. Deputy Leddin floated a good idea, to which I had not given deeper consideration, that an office similar to the budgetary office in respect of climate could be established in the Parliament. That is not a bad idea in terms of resourcing the Parliament in general. The Oireachtas has to develop a more collective identity on climate change. We attempted to do this in the...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate the strong contribution from Deputy Cahill in regard to a whole range of issues, in particular forestry. I am very concerned about this issue. When this Government came in, the licensing situation was very difficult because of a lot of legal actions that were taken against licences, and reforms and legislation were passed to try to speed that up. As to the current indications,...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I have not seen that correspondence, but I will talk to the Minister about the points the Deputy raised.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Turning to Deputy Denis Naughten's questions, I am in favour of what he said. We should take away the legislative barrier to facilitating people in the private sector to work longer. In the year 2000, Ireland was ranked 16th on the European Union league table for life expectancy. This year, we are ranked number one. I did a double take when I saw those figures because I did not expect us...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: On Deputy Niamh Smyth’s point, I fully appreciate the work the committee has been doing in regard to the Future of Media Commission. It is tying that in with the future of democracy and of media literacy. That is extremely important. We would hope to be able to make a decision on this soon. However, I would be upfront with the committee and say that the fundamental issue will be...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I hear what the Deputy is saying on aviation. We are very anxious to get regional balanced development and Shannon Airport is particularly important in that regard, as well as Cork Airport. Hopefully, in the post-Covid environment, we will see a significant pick-up in traffic and international connectivity in particular. I hear what the Deputy is saying about the national broadband plan...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: That is the key. We are working very hard on national cybersecurity. I did not get a chance to address Deputy Flanagan’s earlier point because it was kind of an extensive contribution on European defence, but on the security defence issue, cybersecurity comes under that remit. We cannot deal with cybersecurity on our own. In fact, cybersecurity can only be dealt with on a...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Am I correct that Deputy Bacik started or was it Senator Carrigy?

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I apologise. The first point is I appreciate the work she is doing and the fact it is timebound. I wish her every success. We will do everything we can to be supportive of the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality. On the constitutional issues, again, several Ministers have briefed the committee on the matters under their aegis. On the referendums that may arise from...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I agree. It is our constitutional framework and it is everything else. However, we need to be honest with people as well. We can create all the mechanisms but if they become a function of a body that does not work subsequently then it fails.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes, I suppose. We in the Oireachtas repeatedly get calls for commissions of inquiry and commissions of investigation. That is very much a failure of existing bodies that should be doing this work habitually and regularly. If one were to count all the commissions of inquiry we are being asked to set up, the costs would be enormous but all those costs are resources that are taken from...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Senator is speaking like a Meath full back of old.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: From a Corkman. We took a few kicks in our time.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It is indelibly embedded in our folk memory.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: He never mentions it, for whatever reason, because it does not suit the anti-European Union perspective that he has. The Deputy never does. He always has to be reminded. He talks about consistency of approach and consistency of standards. What amazes me from time to time, from certain parts of the opposite side of the House, is the complete lack of any acknowledgement of the fact the...