Results 12,621-12,640 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----on his party’s fundraising activities over the past 20, 25 or 30 years. I do not think it would bear too much public scrutiny. Anything Fianna Fáil has raised over recent years has been within the law.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: First, as I have said, the cost of living is bearing down very heavily on people. We are acutely aware of that in government and we have brought in approximately €2.4 billion of measures already. As I stated earlier, we cannot chase inflation like we did in the 1970s, when we had a decade-long inflationary cycle that went out of control and undermined people's real incomes, jobs...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: Of course, Deputy Bacik is correct. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, has worked with a range of stakeholders in respect of this. These figures are shocking. The Minister is leading work on a whole-of-Government approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and to develop and to publish the strategy as soon as we possibly can. The Minister engaged with all of the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Government has already taken measures. We accept that people are struggling. We accept the need. There has to be targeted measures, particularly for families and directed towards children in need and children who may be vulnerable, but the budget gives us the framework, but also the opportunity in advance of it to engage with many stakeholders and people who have views on this to make...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: First, the Government has taken significant steps towards reducing the fares on public transport, in the most recent cost-of-living measures we took but also in the budget in October last in terms of young people's fares being reduced by 50%, which was a radical move. I welcome the Deputy's welcome for the 80 electric buses.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: What is significant is that they come from a high quality factory, in terms of rights, in Ballymena. The NTA has secured the capacity there. That illustrates the synergies North and South that have developed economically to the benefit of all on the island. That is a very practical example of that.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: The comments from the Opposition are deeply disingenuous. Sinn Féin is the wealthiest party in Ireland with over 200 staff, 50 properties and a network of fundraising in the United States, as well as an inheritance that would be illegal here in this Republic. With the greatest respect to the Deputy opposite, he has some neck to start lecturing other parties on fundraising. There is...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: If the Deputy looks back at Sinn Féin's history and the history of his movement going back over decades, I would love a similar level of transparency in respect of the historical fundraising his movement engaged in over the decades. I really mean that. If Sinn Féin wants to hold other parties up to scrutiny, it should hold itself-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: Sinn Féin has raised $15 million in the United States over the last number of years. It received €4 million of an inheritance.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: God only knows what happened when Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA were one and the same thing. No one knows where the money went then or how it was translated. That is the bottom line.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: I really would love scrutiny and transparency in respect of all of that. When I come to Deputy Nash, his party has had alternative means of fundraising through a proportion of trade union subscriptions down through the years as well. Many of those trade union members were Fianna Fáil supporters and voters as well as anybody else.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: Let us not pretend that this was some sort of stroke or whatever. It is not. We have some of the better legal frameworks governing political fundraising in this Republic.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes, thanks to Fianna Fáil, actually, and other parties in what has transpired over the last 20 years in terms of this Legislature.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: The comments have been overstated. It struck me that when Deputy Fitzpatrick raised what for him and others in the north east is a legitimate issue, he was shouted down by everybody because he was not obeying the dictatorial attitude of everybody. In other words, because he was not discussing the issue the Deputies raised, all of them were saying he was out of order. All he wanted was time...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: That is democracy - shout down the Independents because they are raising issues of legitimate concern to them but that do not suit the agenda. It is a sign of what is to come if we do not toe the line with certain agendas on a given day, politically and democratically speaking.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, there will be a full debate after committee in respect of the issue he raised, namely, participation in four PESCO projects as opposed to one. I have no difficulty with that. We need interoperability and we need to work on a whole range of issues, from peacekeeping to peace enforcement, and making sure we have the capacity to do all that. Deputy...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: This is a democratic Parliament.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: I remind the Deputy that he is criticising me for facilitating the Green Party and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to come into Government. If I recall, at the time, there was no one more relieved than Deputy Healy-Rae that we formed a Government. His only exhortation to me was that it would go the full five years and not four years.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: What the Minister, Deputy Ryan, is saying, as the Deputy knows well-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jun 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----is that the social welfare system is there for anybody who is in genuine hardship to go to seek assistance. That is well known. That is what the Minister, Deputy Ryan, was referring to. It is wrong to take his words out of context and endeavour to undermine a Minister of integrity. The Deputy may not agree with the Minister's ideas and he has been in denial of climate change and a...