Results 12,941-12,960 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Am I correct that Deputy Bacik started or was it Senator Carrigy?

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I apologise. The first point is I appreciate the work she is doing and the fact it is timebound. I wish her every success. We will do everything we can to be supportive of the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality. On the constitutional issues, again, several Ministers have briefed the committee on the matters under their aegis. On the referendums that may arise from...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I agree. It is our constitutional framework and it is everything else. However, we need to be honest with people as well. We can create all the mechanisms but if they become a function of a body that does not work subsequently then it fails.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Yes, I suppose. We in the Oireachtas repeatedly get calls for commissions of inquiry and commissions of investigation. That is very much a failure of existing bodies that should be doing this work habitually and regularly. If one were to count all the commissions of inquiry we are being asked to set up, the costs would be enormous but all those costs are resources that are taken from...

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Senator is speaking like a Meath full back of old.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: From a Corkman. We took a few kicks in our time.

Working Group of Committee Chairmen: Public Policy Matters: Engagement with the Taoiseach (12 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: It is indelibly embedded in our folk memory.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: He never mentions it, for whatever reason, because it does not suit the anti-European Union perspective that he has. The Deputy never does. He always has to be reminded. He talks about consistency of approach and consistency of standards. What amazes me from time to time, from certain parts of the opposite side of the House, is the complete lack of any acknowledgement of the fact the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: What I have said is that the Government has condemned this appalling murder of a journalist and also the continued violation of basic human rights in terms of the Palestinians' freedom of movement and so forth.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Ó Murchú legitimately raised the issue of drug abuse. I accept fully the shocking impact that drug abuse has on communities, as well as organised crime. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, has commenced preparations for the Citizens' Assembly on drug use, which Deputy Bacik also raised. This has been done to ensure that there will be no delay in establishing the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank all Deputies for raising the various issues in the context of this group of questions. On Deputy Boyd Barrett’s question, it is my view that there should be a citizens’ assembly in relation to all aspects of neutrality. In the first instance, however, we have committed to citizens’ assemblies on education and drugs. We will be examining the timeline around a...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I have been a strong outspoken critic-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I did not interrupt the Deputy. He should allow me to respond.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I am not getting into a league table. The Deputy deliberately intervened so as not to allow me to follow through on what I was about to say.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: My point is that I have consistently been an outspoken critic of Israeli Government policy in respect of Palestine. Ireland as a country has consistently called out, to use the Deputy’s phrase, the constant and consistent violation of agreements already reached on Palestine. Our view is that the Palestinian people have a right to a homeland. We believe in a two-state solution to...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: Who? Is it private operators?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputies for the issues they raised. Funding has been provided by the Minister to increase the capacity of An Bord Pleanála. Along with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Attorney General, I was determined, coming into office, that we would get the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021 passed so that the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority could be...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: My point is that we are not going to be able to retrofit houses-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (11 May 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----in the future to the scale we want if we do not have revenue. We will not get environmentally-friendly farms or protect people from fuel poverty if we do not have revenue. That motion was on the issue of turf, which can be resolved, and carbon tax. Parties like the Social Democrats, which talk about climate change, voted for that motion.