Results 12,401-12,420 of 50,136 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes, but the Deputy has already indicated to me the next row that is coming down.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: If the Deputy wants my honest view, it is this: let us get on with it.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I am happy to engage with the school in regard to the processing of this. I am well aware of the situation. We want to do this as quickly as we possibly can.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has been consistently attacking the leaving cert system over the past number of months. As soon as one of the most radical reforms of the senior cycle programme is announced, he is back in with a different tack, attacking it. Which side is he on? The reforms announced by the Minister are student centred. They have followed the most comprehensive consultation on reform of the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I have no remit for them.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Government has stepped in. There has been a 141% increase in investment in early learning and care services between 2015 and 2021. There has been a corresponding increase in places which grew nationally by 60%. Thousands of additional new places have been funded in recent years. Between May and August of this year, there will be an additional €78 million investment in the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: Obviously, because there has been no amendment in the House. Yes.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I seem to recall that their Deputy and her group opposed the legislation.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I think the Deputy opposed the legislation on Covid measures that we had to take at the time when it was before the House.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: This is not the most virulent variant; it is the most transmissible variant.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: That it has less virulence than other variants means is causing less serious illness. That creates a new difficulty for us in that we cannot justify the economic restrictions we had for a virus that is not translating into very serious illness, mortality or admissions into hospitals and particularly intensive care units. I acknowledge it is causing considerable disruption across society,...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. On all fronts how we are working in a co-ordinated way to provide services. Significant work has been done on the health side to provide a variety of services, PPS numbers, social protection and so on. We acknowledge that we need to provide access to schooling. In multiple ways we need to provide quality of life with good learning environments and...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes, indeed. I know the Minister for Health is working with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to see if we can produce additional places, as we did last year, particularly in the medical field. We need to create more opportunities for people to study medicine and we need to create more opportunities for graduates to become GPs. That is being...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I will certainly speak to the Minister for Health. We have already spoken to the HSE about the situation in Letterkenny and will continue to do so. 1 o’clock There is a problem at the moment in terms of what we discussed earlier with Deputy Joan Collins on the impact of the current wave of Covid on hospitals, particularly model two and model three hospitals, and so forth....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I will get an answer for him. I will seek answers to the questions he has raised or the assertions he has made. That judgment will be fully assessed because Government has to act within the legal framework. The separation of powers applies but we will examine this High Court judgment and determine the steps that need to be taken now to resolve the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: We 100% agree with the Deputy on that. We have schemes and have announced additional funding to put flooding schemes in place all over the country. There have been objections to flooding schemes on environmental and other grounds. In my view, there comes a point in all of these processes when common sense should prevail and balance and perspective should be applied. Above all, protecting...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I will come back to the Deputy.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: The HSE accepts the judgment in the recent High Court case and will not be appealing it. This is in line with the approach advised by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in response to this particular case. Along with other Ministers at the time, I was involved in producing the Disability Act 2005. The Act has not been overly used since then because of its implications. It has not...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: The decision taken by the Government yesterday to introduce the sick leave Bill 2021 was a very good one. This introduction was approved by the Cabinet yesterday. The Bill will legislate for a statutory sick pay scheme for all employees, to be phased in over a four-year period. It can be seen from the decisions taken yesterday, including the decisions to undertake the most radical reform...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (30 Mar 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the broader issue. The DAA is working extremely hard to try to deal with the delays in security checks at the airport. It recently recruited 100 new security staff and this should assist in alleviating the excessive queueing times in the coming period. The DAA works with social partners and through the various labour and employer-employee mechanisms with...