Results 12,781-12,800 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It has been agreed that there will be a debate on the Passport Office next Thursday.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes. As I said yesterday, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of passport applications compared with last year. There will be a debate next Thursday.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate the points raised by Deputy Bruton. We are running out of time. The planet is set for significant changes, and the Cabinet sub-committee has been briefed by experts to the effect that our children's children will bear the brunt of this. There will be an onus on all of us. The Deputy is correct in what he says. The carbon budgets were approved by the Houses on 6 April. The...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Irish Government has consistently raised this issue at the EU and the UN Security Council. Everybody in the House should raise the issue with those who have influence over Israel. There is increasingly institutionalised discrimination within the West Bank and the occupied territories. That is not acceptable. I hope Sinn Féin would do likewise when it meets representatives in the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I will engage with the Minister on this issue. We will ask what the delay is with the publication of the review team report. It would seem to me that what happened was not in conformity with established protocols and decisions that had been taken a long time ago arising out of a State inquiry into the disposal of organs of deceased babies. I will engage with the Minister and come back to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: There is significant investment in third level education by the Government. Participation rates continue to increase. We have perhaps one of the highest participation rates in third level education across the European Union and we have one of the highest completion rates for second level. The first priority has to be to make sure that our third level institutions have adequate core...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: To be fair to Deputy Bacik, she decided to prioritise this issue for Leaders’ Questions. I thought I had dealt with it comprehensively at that point. Deputy McDonald is wrong to put words in my mouth, as she sought to do. I have not apportioned culpability to anybody. However, I stand over what I said earlier. There has to be a collective obligation in terms of accepting children...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I have no issue with resourcing the Passport Office in Cork even more.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: There has always been great capacity in Donegal in respect of these issues.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: He was almost legendary. The debate will be organised next week. That was agreed yesterday with the leader of the Labour Party.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The issue is that the Housing for All strategy includes an action for the Department of Finance to collect data on vacancy with a view to introducing a vacant property tax. That has been our position. As the Deputy knows, local property tax, LPT, returns include questions such as whether a property is vacant and the reason for the vacancy if the period vacancy if the period of vacancy...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I dealt with this on Leaders’ Questions when it was raised by Deputy Paul Murphy. As I said, there were talks yesterday at the Workplace Relations Commission. I hope that those talks will continue in order that we might get a resolution to the outstanding issues.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: As I said, the most effective way to resolve this issue is through the labour relations machinery and industrial relations machinery of the State. It is the most effective way to resolve all disputes of this kind and, ultimately, the only way to do it. That is understood and accepted across all the social partners in respect of disputes in the public and private sectors. As I said, there...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is not present in the room at every dispute that occurs.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Obviously, as the Department representing the taxpayer and everybody, it is always there as an influence. We know that but the bottom line is there is always tick-tacking and-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----things do not happen in isolation. The Deputy knows that. As a trade unionist, she knows how-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As she said, she has made a submission in respect of it to the group looking at reform of the SUSI scheme. As she said, at the last budget, the Government took a number of decisions to improve the student grant scheme, in particular the increase to all student grant maintenance payments, including the special rate of grant of €200 per year,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Government is proactive on this. The NCSE is very focused on the current legislative framework and on this on an operational level. Under the Acts that I have mentioned, very often the onus is put on the parents to seek to places. In my view, the system should be seeking the places for the child. That is the fundamental change that must occur. That requires an automatic response from...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: We talk about inclusivity, and the Acts provide for that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I will finally say that there are approximately 19,000 SNAs in our schools at the moment.