Results 19,441-19,460 of 50,453 for speaker:Micheál Martin

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: If the Deputy sends me on the details, I will follow up on the matter.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: I am not going to go through the mythology the Deputy articulated at the commencement of his question. I remember the decisions made by the North Eastern Health Board and we have come a long way in medicine since then. Very often now, it is the colleges of the various clinical specialties which determine the critical mass that justifies and sustains, for example, a maternity unit or an...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: I think next week is more sensible because one will be able to examine the judgment. That is my only point. In the immediacy of tomorrow and Thursday, people might not get the full-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: Yes.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: I believe the Government's decision is a substantive and significant one in advancing the extension of parents' leave and benefits to five weeks for all parents of children born after 1 November 2019. That is to give parents who gave birth during the Covid period an opportunity to avail of the scheme. The pre-existing scheme was somewhat limited and could have excluded them. The proposal...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Minister and I met the HSE on Friday. He certainly was not missing. He was in front of an entire press briefing.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: He was there and the purpose of the visit was a winter initiative in the context of Covid and also a resumption of services for non-Covid treatments and the non-Covid strand of health services and medicine. It is going to be challenging in terms of capacity constraints in our acute hospitals.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: It will also be challenging in terms of face masks. I have made it my business in the last week to knock heads together and get the regulations signed on Friday so masks would be compulsory on public transport. One can spend forever working out who will do that but the Irish people obey the law and they are compliant in relation to public health matters. There was a good degree of...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: Which one-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: It has been effective and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has spent a lot of time in the last while meeting NGOs in relation to homelessness. It was brought in in the context of the emergency regulations and legislation relating to the pandemic. It is under active consideration by the Government. A decision has to be made by 20 July.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is in the programme for Government. I am aware, as is the Deputy, of the finer details of this but there has been a lot of frustration in terms of the difficulties in rolling out the compassionate access programme. The Minister is aware of it, as well. I will come back to the Deputy with, hopefully, some timelines in relation to it.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: It is the Business Committee that orders the business of the House, trying to balance the need for Government and Private Members' time. There have been two attempts to change the business. I appreciate that Members are entitled to do that. By the way, the €13 billion would not be available even if there were a decision to uphold the Commission's position. The Government's...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Minister has indicated that he wishes to proceed with the two inquiries or investigations by the Data Protection Commission and GSOC. He is of the view that those inquiries should be completed before he would publicly engage with the Dáil.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: The Government and I want to proceed with the technological university programme as quickly as possible. Quite a few of the delays to date have not originated at central government level but rather, as the Deputy will appreciate, while getting local entities and the various stakeholders, including the institutions, ready or persuaded to do it. The south east is one such area. This is why...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: I had not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: First of all, as the Deputy will be aware, the national planning framework targets there being additional population of 160,000 to 180,000 in the north west which would give a population of approximately 1 million people by 2040. In the here and now, Sligo is the engine room in many respects for the north west. In my view, the entire higher education edifice in the region - the institutes...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: Many of these issues were looked at well in advance of the NBP. The Department is pretty clear in terms of the primacy of the national broadband plan as the route to creating proper broadband connectivity across the entirety of Ireland, particularly those areas that are not commercially viable. I have no doubt the new Minister is open to any innovative suggestions or proposals that would...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for that enlightening presentation. I have no issue with sitting down with the Minister and discussing the issues he raised. He might forward to me some further details on the company and its work. That said, the allocation of spectrum is a matter for proper procurement processes and so on. It is not a process with which we can readily interfere. If it is the Deputy's...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: I assure t he Deputy that the hospital board is keeping a vigilant eye on costs and is very much on the case in protecting the taxpayer's interests. I have to put that on the record. The board has kept the Minister informed in respect of the efforts it has been making in that regard. There will be significant domestic tourism activity this year. That is important to weigh up. Our...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Micheál Martin: It may all be under the umbrella of Covid-19 matters, by a stretch. On the first matter, I will of course speak to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, regarding the inclusion of representative voices for SNAs. I think we have more than 70,000 SNAs in our system now. Those posts sprung from an initiative I took back in 1998, when I served as Minister for Education and...