Results 11,961-11,980 of 50,136 for speaker:Micheál Martin

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: We offset it.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: In the first instance, the overall homeless figures remain significantly below the peak of October 2019, but the upward trend remains a serious issue of concern for the Government. A number of factors underpin that increase. It needs to be pointed out that the current level of family homelessness at 1,080 is 34% below the peak figure recorded in July 2018. The number of children under-18...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I am conscious that we have a day and half this week to get business done in the plenary session. Many items will be covered by the House today and tomorrow including: the finance legislation; the Sinn Féin Private Member's motion; the Topical Issue debates; oral questions to the Ministers for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Housing, Local Government and Heritage;...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: We are not in a position to facilitate a debate on the national maternity hospital this week.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I am open to it. I am not against debate but the Government-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----also has to take decisions.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It is up to the House. The Minister is available for a debate on agriculture. The Deputy has been asking for one.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It is Report and Final Stages that are being taken.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It has gone through Committee Stage. There was an extensive debate on Committee Stage.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Ah, come on.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It was not guillotined.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Obviously, the key issue will be resources and the level of expenditure increases we can accommodate within the broad range of challenges and pressures on Government expenditure more generally. We accept the basic point that we need to enhance and strengthen our military capability, not least because the world has changed. The immoral and unjustifiable war on Ukraine in many ways reveals...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for his consistency in highlighting it, and for his good memory of the significant meeting we had three years ago today at the Grand Parade in terms of the Defence Forces. I take his point more generally that there is clearly a need to upgrade significantly and improve resources and capability in respect of our Defence Forces. We need not just...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Government has very strong legal advice as well, via the Attorney General, on the cast iron nature of the legal guarantees that are provided in these documents to underpin clinical, legal and operational independence of the new national maternity hospital. Let us make that point. Protecting the State's interests was critical in the legal agreements that have been arrived at. Most...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: There is also the physical transporting of women with serious complications from one hospital site to another. We must put this to an end. We have to commence putting that to an end, and there is still a journey ahead of us in getting a hospital built. As I have said, one substantial maternity hospital in 20-odd years is not good enough.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The new hospital is the national maternity hospital, not St. Vincent's Healthcare Group.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has had its say. Let us not try to deepen the plot, for whatever reason the Deputy might want to deepen it. Many conspiracy theories are floating about and to nail one of them, the Vatican should have nothing to do with healthcare in public hospitals, has nothing to do with healthcare at this particular maternity hospital and will have nothing to do with it. Forget about that,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: If I was starting on it, from now onwards, hospitals would be fully State hospitals. Co-location was correctly identified by experts in medicine and health as being the optimal configuration to produce better outcomes for women, with maternity hospitals co-located on tertiary hospital sites. While it has happened for other locations, the only place it has happened with a major hospital is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----and I think the balance has now swung very strongly in favour of needing to provide modern, state-of-the-art facilities for the women of this country.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Women will have that access. That is my point. Women will have that access under these agreements. The Deputy has not pointed out how the 300-year lease at €10 a year will undermine the interests of women-----