Results 17,361-17,380 of 50,297 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I am sure the Deputy will welcome the additional beds in the orthopaedic service, a very significant investment in the north side of Cork by the Government and it will make a very significant difference there. As I said to the Deputy last week, I introduced SouthDoc and it is a vital service. It is not just about opening the doors, as the Deputy knows. It involves personnel and ensuring...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is indeed. Edgar Graham was murdered in 1983. It was a shocking murder. It happened between lectures. I think he was with Dermot Nesbitt at the time. It should be roundly condemned by all parties as a murder most foul. His family has received very little in terms of a report from the historical enquiries team, HET, investigations into his murder. It was callous, it was cruel and it...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: My message is that I am committed to doing everything I possibly can to reduce the times for children waiting for scoliosis surgery. There were 255 scoliosis procedures up to the end of October of this year. That compares with 319 spinal procedures for the same period last year. Unfortunately, in March, April and May, because of Covid-19, there was a collapse in the number of procedures...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I will certainly look into it. The guidance, in terms of the sequencing and the prioritisation, will always be informed by the national immunisation committee, the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and the public health expertise. It is important that we all collectively adhere to that because I do not see how it can be managed otherwise. Various sectors and groups will come...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Government's view is similar to the Deputy's in the context of Covid-19, that unless people represent a threat to national security they should not be deported at the present point in time. Deporting is a part of our wider migration management programme but in the context of Covid, we have obligations to the health of people, irrespective of status, for example, in terms of sending...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I am of the view that the Deputy's party are opportunistic propagandists and it is all about distorting the truth. In 2016, the Deputy wanted to reverse the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, in their entirety. The higher earners and pensioners, that the Deputy is giving out about now, would have had their cuts reversed back in 2016 if he had his way. That is the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: One should not be tolerating exploitation of student nurses.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The bottom line is that if the Deputy had had his way in 2016, the higher earning pensioners and public servants would have had their full restoration at that time.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: That is a fact. One cannot legally discriminate between the two and the Deputy knows that but it does not suit him to spin it that way or to tell the truth in respect of it. He read out the case of a first-year student who had to wash, dress and feed a Covid patient. Does the Deputy think that is okay? I do not. I think it is a scandal.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is a scandal that is wrong and it should be investigated. I am amazed that the Deputy thinks it is okay.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: He does think it is okay. He is saying they should be paid. My view is they should never have been asked in the first instance to do that and I want it investigated. I want the Deputy to give me the details of that case because we need to get to the bottom of this.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I have said to the Deputy that if any hospital employs a student nurse on a roster, he or she should be paid. It is completely undermining a degree programme if he is telling me that a first year student in a clinical-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I am not disagreeing. I am saying the Deputy is missing the point. If that happened, it is a scandal. It should not happen because it is exploiting the student and it represents an abuse of the student.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I agree with the Deputy. All schools should get the optimal connectivity possible. We have been working with the Department involved with a view to seeing whether we can do something additional to ensure that schools in particular are connected properly and that they have access to the highest level of connectivity. I do not have the specifics on the case the Deputy identified but what he...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: I agree with the sentiments articulated by the Deputy. I will engage with the Minister for Education on this, and with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and his Department. At a recent meeting we identified the potential of doing something with the schools. The costs would not be excessive by any means. I did it once previously. As Minister for Education in the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: In the first instance, direct build is the preferred model in the context of social housing. That is where the focus will be and where the overwhelming allocation of resources will go. In 2021, we will see the largest State-led social housing building programme in the country's history. We will build 9,500 homes next year, which is more than any single year before that. I will get the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: First of all, I do not insult people. I do not go about trying to insult people. The Deputy referred to the cases raised by him, Deputy Paul Murphy and others yesterday. I told him he should send details of those cases to the HSE in the form of complaints that require investigation. It was stated here yesterday that a student nurse had to console a mother at the bedside of her dead baby....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: Surely, the Deputy would agree that first, second or third year students should not have to do the kind of work mentioned by the Deputy.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: He keeps ignoring that point I made to him. They should be protected.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is deliberately dishonest in her presentation of the story and the narrative. There was a delay for the great and the good. It was a long delay. If the Deputy had had her way, there would have been less of a delay, given her desire to reverse FEMPI a long time ago. She knows that, but she chooses not to say it. She also has refused and ignored my central point. She says that...