Results 1,361-1,380 of 49,960 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----in terms of the housing issue and the housing market.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: One of the challenges we have, and it will remain a challenge irrespective of what gets said, is how we balance the unprecedented level of State investment in housing with private sector investment in housing, because if we want to get to 50,000 homes per year, we are going to have to do that. That will need fairly focused, specific change in what we have been doing. I acknowledge that. ...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----at all of the initiatives that have happened in recent years and where we have to do more. I would respectfully suggest it is not in opposing every initiative the Government comes forward with. It is not taking safe options such as saying it all has to be social housing on one side or nothing, which delayed housing schemes-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: You did - which delayed housing schemes for years in this country. Absolute fundamentalism in respect of how things should happen has held back housing growth in this country. I am going to put it to the Deputy that we are going to take initiatives here and I would welcome his support for them, instead of what has happened over the past four years, where you have opposed every single...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: First of all, as I said to the Deputy, and I will say again, there was no attempt to mislead the public on this. That is the first point. I will make another point. We used ESRI data for our election targets in housing, which the Deputy's party did and everybody did. The fundamental question is how the targets are achieved. That is the core question. What the Social Democrats put...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: One of your main contributions to that meeting, and I remember it well, was you looking at your watch: nudge, nudge, time to get out to make the 6 o'clock news for the soundbite. That was your contribution to Government talks.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: That is what happened. We saw it on our side: nudge, nudge, look at the watch, we better get out and get the 6 o'clock news.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Social Democrats had no commitment to going into Government.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: There are 3,000 ESB Networks crew members, with crews from the UK, France, Finland, Germany, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands. I thank all of the 3,000 people involved in all of those crews. We can say “Do it faster" but they have been working day and night since the storm began. There is no additional capacity other than what is there in those 3,000 crew members. I think we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: As I have said already, housing is the number one issue. It was not, in any shape or form, a deliberate attempt to mislead people. I have quoted those who early in the year and mid-year were predicting close to 40,000, such as EY-Euroconstruct, Deutsche Bank and Cairn Homes. Others, by the way, in other years the Deputy identified, underestimated the number of houses that were...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: Stoirm uafásach a bhí ann, is dócha an ceann is measa a bhí againn riamh. Níl aon amhras faoi sin. Caithfimid a bheith an-bhuíoch do gach éinne a thug cabhair agus tacaíocht do dhaoine ar fud na tíre. This was a severe, unprecedented storm, the likes of which we have not witnessed in living memory. It caused widespread devastation throughout...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: I will say more on that if I get a chance.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: Could I say to the Deputy that if we take the three years combined, 2022, 2023 and 2024----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: ----we exceeded our targets by close to 5,000 houses. That is not of interest to the Deputy.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: The bottom line of the general election is that the programme Sinn Féin put forward did not persuade people. It wanted to dramatically disrupt and change the Land Development Agency.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: Sinn Féin wanted to get rid of the help-to-buy scheme and the first home scheme, which are so beneficial to first-time buyers. Its programme did not persuade.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: The platform as to how Sinn Féin was going to achieve a housing breakthrough or higher numbers simply did not persuade people.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has got to acknowledge that is the reality of it. We have exceeded targets in two years. In the third year, we did not. I am extremely disappointed with that. The estimates out there from the entities I have identified were clearly pointing in a direction which did not turn out to be the case.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: Níl aon dabht ann ach gurb í an ghéarchéim is mó atá againn sa tír seo ná an easpa tithíochta. Níl a dhóthain tithe againn. Caithfimid gach aon dícheall a dhéanamh chun i bhfad níos mó tithe a chruthú chomh tapa agus is féidir linn. Housing is the number one social priority in this country. It goes to the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2025)

Micheál Martin: No, they were not.