Results 11,981-12,000 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

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

Micheál Martin: Ask a lot of the dissidents and a lot of the people who left her party down through the years. They can verify the degree to which Animal Farmapplies to it. That is why Orwell-----

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

Micheál Martin: I welcome our visitors from Ballyhaunis secondary school. It is why Orwell should always be a core part of the second level curriculum, just to prepare us.

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

Micheál Martin: The danger, of course, is that the party opposite, as I have said, in particular take 1984as an instruction manual and it does it very well, holding many contradictory opinions at the same time.

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

Micheál Martin: On the chartered surveyors, they have come up with a calculation without even seeing the detailed design of the levy. The Finance Bill will work out the detailed design of the levy itself. The Department of Finance’s calculations are much lower than what the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has indicated. Of course, the working out of all of this will be in the context of the...

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

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for her contribution. When George Orwell wrote his great novel, 1984, he talked about the party’s emphasis on doublethink. Describing it, he explains that party members have “to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them”. Most people who have read 1984took it as a warning but...

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

Micheál Martin: How else can we reconcile the party’s performance on this issue? We have just watched the Deputy condemn the Government’s proposal in respect of industry contributing to the cost of mica redress. Just last week, her colleague, Deputy Doherty, stood in this House, in the same place as the Deputy, and declared, "I also welcome the defective concrete products levy." I then...

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

Micheál Martin: Then again, the Deputy’s party had a Private Members’ motion in June 2021 in which it demanded "that those responsible for the manufacture of defective blocks are held to account, and that industry contributes to the overall cost". In that debate Deputy Doherty was equally clear that builders and suppliers "are held to account with a contribution extracted from the industry...

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

Micheál Martin: The Deputy's party is the party of doublethink and the three-card trick. It is for mica redress and industry making its contribution until it is not. It supports the levy on concrete products until it does not. The industry responsible for the problem should pay until it should not.

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

Micheál Martin: Sinn Féin is making this up as it goes along.

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

Micheál Martin: I will put it this way - God help us if it ever gets near the national finances.

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

Micheál Martin: In respect of first-time buyers, we have to look at things fairly. This Government is giving unprecedented support to first-time buyers. The help-to-buy scheme has assisted 35,000 first-time buyers, at €30,000 per qualifying property. The new first homes shared equity scheme will provide further supports to first-time buyers. In the past 12 months, more first-time buyers bought...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Policies (4 Oct 2022)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 to 40, inclusive, together. Through the Government’s Shared Island initiative, we are engaging with all communities and traditions to build consensus around a shared future; and delivering tangible benefits for the whole island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. In the Budget last week, the Government confirmed an allocation of...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Programmes (4 Oct 2022)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 66 and 67 together. Ireland submitted its National Reform Programme (NRP) for 2022 to the European Commission on 4 May. The NRP was laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and published on gov.ie thereafter. The NRP is an element of the European Semester, the annual cycle of economic and fiscal policy co-ordination among EU Member States. The NRP provides...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Investigations (4 Oct 2022)

Micheál Martin: The investigation to which the Deputy refers is being conducted by a senior official in my Department and it has not yet been concluded. I have not involved myself in the detail of the process and it is not possible at this point to indicate when the process will be completed.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Transport (4 Oct 2022)

Micheál Martin: My Department has not incurred any expenditure on domestic flights in the period in question.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (4 Oct 2022)

Micheál Martin: I visited New York for UN High Level Week from 21-23 September. While there, in addition to delivering Ireland’s National Statement, I had the opportunity to engage with a number of other Leaders in roundtable discussions, bilateral meetings and in the margins. I had formal bilateral meetings with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres; the President of the UN General...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Citizens' Assembly (4 Oct 2022)

Micheál Martin: Two Citizens’ Assemblies committed to in the Programme for Government were established in February this year, one on the issue of Biodiversity Loss and the other on the type of directly elected mayor and local government structures best suited for Dublin. The inaugural meeting for both Assemblies took place in April 2022. The Terms of Reference, as set out by the Oireachtas, call...

Financial Resolutions 2022 - Financial Resolution No. 6 – General (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Micheál Martin: Carbon taxes are an essential part of a credible plan to tackle climate change. That is a simple fact. Therefore, we will never agree with Sinn Féin’s opposition to carbon taxes. They are essential to both changing behaviour and funding a fair and inclusive transition to a sustainable economic and environmental model. This policy is the shared view of this Government and, just...

Financial Resolutions 2022 - Financial Resolution No. 6 – General (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Micheál Martin: Its only interest is to exploit the real pressures individuals and families face. As we saw when the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, debated with the Sinn Féin spokesperson earlier this year, the sound bites simply do not stack up to even the most basic scrutiny. Their costings and building numbers are little more than inventions designed to claim to have a plan rather than actually...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2022)

Micheál Martin: First, the Deputy is correct to say it was raised in the Dáil.