Results 18,381-18,400 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

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...

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

Micheál Martin: That is an exploitation and abuse of the students, but the Deputy will not call that out because it does not suit her political story.

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

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The lack of housing supply across the board remains a major crisis in our society. As a result of that, I have chaired a number of housing Cabinet subcommittees, all designed to try to break up the bottlenecks and move things on as fast as we possibly can both legislatively and in terms of various projects. From the July stimulus onwards, for...

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

Micheál Martin: First, we need the truth here. The Deputy and her party campaigned for the reversal of financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, for years, from 2013 onwards. FEMPI involved payments to the people the Deputy just outlined. She knows that, of course, but it suits her to twist and distort the truth about the reversal of FEMPI cuts. Legally, in terms of those cuts, one...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committees (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Cabinet Committee on COVID-19 meets as required. It last met on 26th November. A date has not yet been set for the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committees (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Health is scheduled to take place on Monday, 14 December.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committees (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Investment first met on the 8 July. It has met on a total of eight occasions, most recently on 4 December. The next meeting has not yet been scheduled.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Bodies Data (9 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: National Economic and Social Council The National Economic and Social Council is an independent statutory agency operating under the aegis of my Department. The Terms of Reference and composition of the NESC are set out in legislation - the National Economic and Social Development Act, 2006, and in the National Economic and Social Council (Alteration of Composition) Order, 2010. I appoint...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Programme for Government (8 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: To respond to Deputy Paul Murphy on the student nurses issue, and to Deputy Bríd Smith, who asked me what I would call what happened, I call it an instance of abuse of student nurses. It should not happen in our hospitals-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Programme for Government (8 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: It should not happen, and in my view, it calls into question the very essence of what the nursing degree programme was about. In my view, the HSE should be written to. I do not know whether complaints have been made to the HSE in respect of those individual cases but if not, they should have been and someone should pursue that on behalf of those student nurses. It is not acceptable in any...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Programme for Government (8 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: They should never be put-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Programme for Government (8 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: Let me speak. I listened to the Deputy. They should never be put in that position. I am of a view that if someone is told to work a roster, he or she should be paid for working that roster. If we allow that to happen, we will undermine the whole basis of the degree programme - that is the point. We should not allow lazy or wrong practices by those who are meant to supervise and be in...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Programme for Government (8 Dec 2020)

Micheál Martin: -----1,400 additional nurses have been employed and recruited since Covid began. That is not the excuse. It should not be an excuse-----