Results 1,641-1,660 of 50,909 for speaker:Micheál Martin

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy has raised a fair point, although some planning permissions do get through in west Cork, as the Deputy acknowledges. I think the guidelines do need some review, especially concerning people on farms and the children of farming communities, to maintain a sustainable community in certain areas. This is particularly the case with the improvements in technology, wastewater and so on....

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I appreciate the concerns of and pressures on the parents in his constituency. At the moment, the school transport scheme sees about 172,000 children transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes. It is a very complex scheme. It includes over 143,800 pupils travelling on primary and post-primary services. There are also...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. There will be a decision made before the end of the month and clarity and certainty brought to this topic. I think it needs to be said, though, that it has been a very generously resourced scheme by the Government. It has played a very significant role in accommodating Ukrainians fleeing from war. Originally, it started out at €400. It...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: First of all, I condemn the horrendous atrocity over the last two days in terms of the bombing of innocent men, women and children. I have not briefed anything of the sort the Deputy suggested. Again, if she had consulted me, she might have got the truth, but she decides just to go for the propaganda. That is what it is about. In my remarks in the Oval Office, I very succinctly...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----on the Middle East, and it is on the record. For the life of me, I will never understand why Deputy McDonald did not go to Capitol Hill.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: The reason I will never understand it is-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----that the Deputy has many friends-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----on Capitol Hill. She has many funders in America who have funded her organisation. She has many business contacts.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: She meets with many developers in the United States. I think the reason she did not go to the United States is that she did not want to face them in respect of the different American perspective on the Middle East.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I have no issue with going and articulating the fundamental principled stance Ireland has taken.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy dodged it deliberately and decided to stay at home, which I think was a mistake and robs her of any credibility in attacking me or criticising me in respect of this issue.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Again, I did not do that in any shape or form. In any interactions I had, I articulated that the programme for Government was progressing the occupied territories Bill. I made that very clear and I listed out all the actions we had taken, which are well known to the House. Fundamentally, however, it seems to me that Prime Minister Netanyahu, irrespective of what gets said here or what...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: No, I did not, but I am interested in how the Deputy is conflating the Bord Pleanála decision - I hope she accepts that An Bord Pleanála is an independent body-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I am just making the point that I hope that everybody accepts that it is an independent body. Its decision should not be conflated with an earlier decision of the Government in respect of energy security, which is required. The legal opinion, by the way, to the previous Minister, which is on file in the Department, is such that, legally, it is not possible to prohibit fracked gas as to what...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: However, we will get legislation done here through plenary methods, but we will engage.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: My understanding is that all the Whips agreed the Dáil calendar. I know we have these empty soundbites coming up that since November we have only met so many times. There was a government being formed since November as Deputy Tóibín knows well, but he just ignores it.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: To be fair to him, he did not play a meaningful role in the formation of Government. I acknowledge that. He was an observer of what was going on.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: In the modern era, it takes a long time to form a government. It was actually much shorter this time than in 2020 when I think it took five or six months.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: This time it was much shorter and probably much shorter than most other European Union member states. By the way, I do not like having a prolonged timeline in terms of the formation of Government. Let us be honest with the public that many Deputies were in here in November, December and January trying to put a government together and trying to get the substance of a programme for Government...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: In response to Deputy Collins, private nursing homes are not covered by section 39. As he knows there is a separate financial mechanism. The National Treatment Purchase Fund is the mechanism through which private nursing homes get funded. I agree with him that it was a welcome development that the section 39 issue was resolved through the pay talks. Deputy Gibney raised the issue of...