Results 13,101-13,120 of 50,136 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: It has happened for more than 30 years.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: I am just saying it should inform debates as well across the country in other locations.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: A lot can happen.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: First, I thank Deputy Naughten for raising this very important issue. I also thank the Deputy for the research that he has commissioned. It is an interesting analysis, maybe I would suggest a preliminary analysis, in respect of long Covid that certainly will be part and parcel of the health service for quite some time to come and will be a significant challenge for clinicians for some time...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is wrong. We are not talking about looting anyone or any workers.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: A €630 million package of income tax and universal social charge reductions was brought in in the last budget and the Deputy opposed it. That is what we did in the last budget. We brought that in.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: The other point I would make is that the measures we took benefit workers. Cutting electricity bills by €200 benefits workers.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: The €125 lump sum for fuel helps those on very low incomes. The threshold for the drugs payment scheme coming down to €80 benefits workers, particularly workers and families with high medical bills. Capping school transport charges helps workers. Those are measures we took. The 20% reduction in public transport fares helps workers, particularly those getting the bus or train...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: Actually, it has worked far better than the model the Deputy is proposing. Investment would flee the country; there is no question about that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: Actually, there is almost full employment at the moment.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: There are nearly 2.5 million people working in this country.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: Those are workers who are working because of a model that has involved foreign direct investment coming into the country over the last 50 years. That is something the Deputy opposes deep down.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has no time for it. It employs thousands and thousands of people and he tells me he is on the side of workers.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: He wants to destroy the economic model to get elected and he would use every mechanism to do that. That is the raison d'êtreof how he operates. That is fair enough in one sense but people need to know it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: We provided €650 million in the budget to reduce the USC and tax, a move which the Deputy opposed. I would also make the point that he is against property tax. He is against carbon tax. He is against the USC. He is meant to be left wing. How are we going to fund the services?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: How are we going to invest in education, health and housing? How are we going to do that? The Deputy is far more populist than he is left wing. His is in one of the few left-wing groups in Europe that opposes all of those taxes and that does not believe that we need to broaden our tax revenue base to support workers-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: -----and people on low incomes and to invest in housing, health, education and childcare. We cannot do it. Some €4.5 billion comes in through the USC. If we just simply abolish it, we will not have the resources to invest in childcare, to invest in education and health and so on.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: I genuinely put that to Deputy Boyd Barrett. I just do not understand where he is going to generate the revenue base that would create those billions.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: Wages will rise in the next number of years. The Central Bank is predicting that wage rises will outpace price increases over the next three years, despite the spike in inflation this year. From the public service perspective, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, arrived at an agreement with the public service unions last year on the national pay...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Feb 2022)

Micheál Martin: We acknowledge that. This is because the Government cannot cover everything. There have been two years where the Government has invested to an unprecedented extent into our economy. It was unprecedented that the Government would underpin what had to be done. It was right that we did it because of the pandemic. However, this cannot go on forever; we cannot continue to fund every...