Results 18,721-18,740 of 50,453 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: My understanding is that a stakeholders' forum has been established in regard to this issue and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is engaging with that forum. It has met twice and I understand efforts will be made to come up with a compromise and resolution of this issue. I will take the Deputy's concerns to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and discuss them...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is open now for the first time to new entrants and seasonal workers. The Deputy knows that the Low Pay Commission is not the Government. It is an independent statutory body and the Deputy knows that, yet she came in here this morning trying to pretend that the Low Pay Commission is an arm of the Government. It is not. It is an independent body set up by this Oireachtas, including...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: That is not a point of order.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: That is not a point of order. That is an abuse of the House.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for her questions and the points she has raised. I accept that a debate on public health should transcend party politics and politics in general. I said at the weekend that it is important to communicate in different ways on different platforms to different age cohorts, ethnic minorities and migrant workers. We worked on the issue of employment in meat plants and people...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is fundamentally wrong of the Deputy to attempt to make political capital out of a decision of the independent Low Pay Commission, which is not dictated to or influenced by the Government. In fact, the past five recommendations from the commission have been accepted by the Government. The Government supports low-paid workers. We have the fourth-highest minimum wage in European systems...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy uses every situation to tell untruths, rather than the truth, about the reality out there. She is fundamentally wrong about the wage subsidy scheme. That scheme is about employers who employ people. The Deputy knows that there are various formulas designed to facilitate, for example, employers whose turnover has dropped to 70% of the previous year and so on. The Deputy...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The PUP was introduced early in the life of the pandemic as a 12-week temporary scheme. In July, the new Government decided to extend it to April. The rates were reduced but they are still at levels closely approximate to what people were earning before being laid off as a result of the pandemic. This was to make it more sustainable over the long term. A total of €3.5 billion has...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: Let me speak.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: We also need to talk to the unions so that we get a comprehensive sustainable sick pay regime.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: We are working towards this. In the meantime, in the context of Covid, the Covid-19 illness benefit is available at a rate of €350 per week to employees and the self-employed. That is the case.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is paid for two weeks where a person is medically certified as self-isolating. It can be extended for a further two weeks for a maximum of ten weeks where a person is medically certified.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I ask the Deputy to stop interrupting. He disingenuously presented the Government's case wrongly.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: That benefit is available for a further ten weeks if a person is medically certified as being diagnosed with Covid-19. In a minority of cases where people continue to be sick after ten weeks they can apply for the standard illness benefit payment and can receive it for up to two years. We have extended this for people living in direct provision as well. The Deputy has missed the point...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: There is enough provision there for Covid.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: In terms of disabilities, we have been working with service providers, many of whom are not in a position to resume fully, not because of funding but because of protocols on Covid. We will continue to work with them on the funding issue and on restoring services as quickly and safely as we possibly can.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I have not seen it.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: In situations such as this, service providers will always send in figures. They are always subject to negotiation. There has been very energetic and hands-on contact between the HSE and the service providers endeavouring to get adult services, in particular, restored. This is important and it is something to which we are committed.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Question Nos. 8 to 12, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on Covid-19 was re-established by the Government on 29 June to continue to assess the social and economic impacts of the potential spread of Covid-19 and oversee the cross-Government response. The committee, which I chair, meets as regularly as required and has met on five occasions since 29 June, most...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (22 Sep 2020)

Micheál Martin: The legislation the Government has introduced applies until January and it protects tenants who are in difficulty because of the Covid-19 crisis in terms of income and so on. It protects them from rent increases and eviction. It is a more specific Bill than that which preceded it. The reason the blanket ban could not be continued is that, fundamentally, it was unconstitutional. We were no...