Results 13,941-13,960 of 50,151 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: Again, as has been announced, the rate of payment of the PUP will be linked to prior earnings. All individuals, including the self-employed and students, who lose their employment on or after Tuesday, 7 December because of the effects of the new public health restrictions are eligible. The PUP will be available for self-employed workers, such as taxi drivers, if they lose their jobs as a...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: Real progress has been made on resourcing home care hours. As the Deputy will know, about 5 million additional hours were provided in 2021-----

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: -----and these will be maintained in 2022. There is an issue with securing workers. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is working on this with the sector. In the medium term, the issue is improving conditions and so forth but, in the immediate term, it is how we can make it more amenable for people to come into the sector. It is not an issue of resources any more; it is about securing...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, does have a moral compass. I do not think the Deputy should suggest anything to the contrary. The number of people waiting for home support across different categories has reduced from over 9,000 at the start of 2020 to approximately 5,300 at the end of September 2021. The issue is recruitment of additional home support workers. That is the issue....

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: There is no lack of urgency and no lack of empathy in terms of the situation that certain sectors of our economy find themselves in because of the restrictions relating to Covid-19 and the impact of Covid-19 on their particular sectors. It makes a lot of sense, however, as we move from wave to wave and different phases of this pandemic, to adjust the mechanisms we have at our disposal to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: We talk about spin and we all have our own perceptions of spin. The Deputy just did a bit of spinning when she said I was putting more responsibility on children. I did nothing of the sort. I acknowledged the challenges that faced children, what they have done to date and how difficult it has been for them.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is no exception in the House either, in terms of having the capacity to spin. I did not interrupt her. The point I was making was that children and young people have gone through an awful lot in this pandemic. Their quality of life has been in many ways reduced by the pandemic. It is the Covid-19 pandemic that is driving all of this. Those in the engine room have to keep going...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: As I said yesterday, this was robustly debated at the time for a considerable length of time in terms of issues leading up to awarding of the contract, the best way to do it and so on. It was done transparently. The Deputy referenced yesterday the memo from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that was published at the time. It was weighed up at the time and we had our view. I...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: I have.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for his comment. His point is valid. The advice from the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, is that it strongly recommends that children aged five to 11 years with an underlying condition, living with a younger child with complex medical needs or living with an immunocompromised adult should receive the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech. This...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: First, it is not possible to have prelegislative scrutiny. Prelegislative scrutiny in the Dáil is now taking up to six months in some cases----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: In some cases, it is taking up to six months. There is no way one can deal with a pandemic, going through the luxury of-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: It is. It is very rational.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: It is taking six months for prelegislation on many key Bills, never mind a public health emergency. Is the Deputy seriously suggesting we could do it?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: We cannot do it. Unfortunately, the experience has been that it takes too long. We are extending the timeframe for the operation of the legislation that is expiring, in essence, and consolidating-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: -----the existing powers that were there in different Acts and so forth. I accept the point that people are war weary of this pandemic. Of course, they are. It has gone on much longer than people may have anticipated.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: On the other hand, we are in a different position this year compared to last year in terms of the where the economy is and the degree to which it has bounced back. There are 30,000 job vacancies in quarter 3, compared to 19,000, two years ago. The hospitality sector, entertainment and tourism have been hardest hit and we will do everything we can to support those sectors.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: I disagree with the basic premise of the Deputy's argument. She speaks of a Government agenda. The only agenda I and the Government have is to protect people's lives and health in the middle of a global pandemic which is a one-in-100-year event. There is no other agenda than that. I do not know what the Deputy meant when she said it was just to suit the Government's agenda. Our...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: The HSE acknowledges that it has to improve systems, but it is more than that. In my conversations with all the principals yesterday, there was a sense, to be frank, that the same urgency that applied to getting a first and second dose was not quite there for the third dose. That is not to cast blame or anything like that, but to urge everybody that the booster has very significant and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2021)

Micheál Martin: It is good to see the Deputy back. I thank him for raising these questions. He called the re-enactment of the public health laws last week "draconian". These laws have been debated in the House on a number of occasions since the pandemic started. Public health comes to the forefront during a pandemic and laws are brought in for its duration. These are not laws one would use in ordinary...