Results 121-140 of 49,960 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----within the public service. That is the objective, but no decision has been made, so I am not in a position to confirm anything to Deputy McDonald today in that respect.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: I wish to confirm to the Deputy that the Central Statistics Office on Thursday - and the Deputy is good for giving her side or perspective all the time - indicated that close to 6,000 new homes were completed in the first quarter of 2025, which is the second highest first quarter delivery since the day the series began in 2011 and a 2% increase on the first quarter of 2024. It is a figure...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: That is not surprising because she did not in any shape or form want to point to any figures that would give some degree of positive reality. We want to build far more and we acknowledge that we have far more to build. The Deputy has a record of opposing well over 1,000 houses in her own constituency.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: She has put her own constituency needs above and beyond the housing-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: She did. She objected to well over 1,000 houses in her constituency.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: It is a bit rich of her to come in here on a daily basis ranting about housing when her own record in respect of giving it the ultimate priority that it deserves is fairly poor in terms of her performance.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: The programme for Government-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----is clear in its decision. The programme ordained that we would set up a housing activation office because we are going to consistently add to the initiatives we have taken in housing-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----and we make no apologies for doing further in terms of-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: I could not disagree more with the Deputy on her critique of Government housing policy. The bottom line is that if we look over the past four years, there has been a very significant step change in the level and scale of housing delivery in this country. On social housing alone, more than 48,000 houses have been to the social housing stock.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: Not since the 1970s have we seen that level and scale of social house building and social house provision. Those are the facts. We need to do far more than that but, without question, the number of social houses built in the past three to four years is without compare and we would have to go back to the 1970s to get similar levels of social house completion.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: In the first three years of Housing for All - 2022 to 2024 - overall housing targets were exceeded. It is not all failure and failure as Deputy McDonald dismisses it. Those were the targets set by Housing for All and they were exceeded. More than 130,000 houses were constructed.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: We need to do much, much more. The ESRI has said that the need, as a result of population growth and so on, is approximately 50,000 per annum. Sinn Féin has failed in any shape or form to provide any substance underpinning housing policy in respect of how it would achieve that target, never mind the 30,000-plus that have been achieved on an annual basis over the past three years.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: Its policies were demonstrably anti-first-time buyer and there has been quite a significant drawdown of mortgages. Up to 120,000 first-time buyer mortgages have been drawn down over the past number of years.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: If Sinn Féin had its way, it would have taken away the supports such as the help to buy scheme or indeed the first home scheme from those first-time buyers and it would have destroyed the momentum that has been built up over the past number of years-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: -----in respect of first-time buyers. That is the reality. Deputy Mac Lochlainn can smile all he likes but that is the truth. Sinn Féin wanted to get rid of the help to buy scheme. It wanted to get rid of the bridge the gap scheme. Will he please explain to first-time buyers how that would have assisted them? It would not have in any shape or form. We will maintain the focus on...
- Tariffs: Statements (9 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: Táimid buartha faoin mhéid atá tar éis tarlú go dtí seo ó thaobh an gheilleagair de agus na taraifí go léir atá ar an bhfód faoi láthair. Is é bun agus barr chúrsaí geilleagair na tíre seo ná a bheith ag trádáil ar fud an domhain, go hoscailte agus go forleathan. Níl aon amhras ach go mbeidh...
- Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (9 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: The Minister will engage with all concerned. Curriculum reform, generally speaking, has worked well in Ireland through the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA. There have been many innovative and good and positive developments. I will talk to the Minister in respect of the issues that have been raised. I have no doubt the Minister will engage with the social partners on...
- Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (9 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: Just to say to the Deputy, I am not aware of the specifics of what he has said.
- Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (9 Apr 2025)
Micheál Martin: I am not going to comment on individual cases, but if there is anything untoward - and the Deputy clearly believes there is - there are authorities to which all of that can be reported and properly investigated.