Results 1,781-1,800 of 50,909 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Yes, and schools’ allocations. I will pursue Deputy Ardagh's question with the Minister seeing as she made a compelling case. If there is no second-level coeducational non-denominational school in Dublin 8, there should be. As she said, there is now a primary school so there is a feeder school for such a school. We should try to progress that. It is no different to Deputy...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: There were quite a number of contributions there. Deputy Tóibín spoke first on the 70,000 referrals.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: In the first nine months of last year, and he is suggesting it will go to 94,000. That is an extraordinary number. I will have to drill down behind the numbers in terms of context and so on but it is very high. That is a broader societal issue as well and it shows Tusla has an enormous workload, to put it charitably. That is a huge impact. As the Deputy said, they are referred by a...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: We are working to see if we can ensure places for children next September. I agree with Deputy Cian O'Callaghan that nursing homes are not suitable for young people who have a chronic illness or a significant disability. My understanding is that the number had come down in recent times but I will speak to the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for nursing...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: In terms of its obligations.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: We discussed that last week. The public service must do far better than it is doing. There is no question about that. There must be proactivity within the public service, particularly on the employment front. We are not employing enough people with additional needs in our public service. The Deputy spoke about the means test. We will work on that, with the Minister for Social...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 24 to 37, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on children and education will oversee the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of children and education with a special focus on child poverty and well-being. It will receive detailed reports on identified policy areas, such as child poverty, well-being and education. A...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Which report?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: What is the delay? Is he seeking an opinion?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Who is seeking the opinion?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Geoghegan raised the first issue, which was an interesting point, relating to the recruitment of therapists, particularly from overseas. This was raised at our initial meeting between Ministers last week. Perhaps we need to engage with CORU on this. Historically, although I am not sure whether this is the case here, regulatory bodies can have fairly rigorous criteria for...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Yes, a therapy-based service is being worked on. At our meeting, we gave the green light for that and asked the Department of Education to prepare to, we hope, commence it this September, if we can get the Estimates right and so on. It was not provided for in the previous budget because the pilot scheme had been initiated under the auspices of the Departments of Health and children, but...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Strategies (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: Yes, Deputy Bennett too, apologies. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler said earlier she has met the group. She says the HSE is telling her that it has to satisfy governance and it wants audits and so on. It is working with the group to try and fix that and get that sorted.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Strategies (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I know but there must be some issues there that need resolving.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Strategies (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: As soon as we can get it done. The Minister of State is sympathetic. She has met the group with a view to getting it resolved.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Strategies (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: On Deputy Coppinger’s question, the €3 billion will be some time off. The immediate target is LOA 2. The programme for Government commits that after that a move to LOA 3 but we are some distance off because of procurement and so on. The Deputy spoke of increases but we are one of the lowest spenders. We have very low spending on military and we are coming from a very low...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Strategies (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I will be going, yes.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Strategies (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for the points he made. I refer to Mark Henry’s book which identifies the extraordinary gains that have been made in lifespan in Ireland among men and women. It is a great story which never gets told but Health did something right over the past 20 years. Lifestyle is important as well. I like the idea of tax relief for gym membership. I think it is a good idea...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Strategies (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: -----are inevitably saying there are complexities. Inevitably there are complexities attached to the proposal but I think we should do everything we possibly can to encourage activity and fitness levels in society. That is why I think one of the best things we have done in recent years is transformative investment in active travel across the country. One only has to go along greenways or...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (4 Mar 2025)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 to 23, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on disabilities has been established to oversee the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of disability with specific focus on children’s disability services as well as disability services more generally under the forthcoming new national disability strategy. It is due...