Micheál Martin

Our bread and butter is trade deals-----

-----and we should support CETA. I would appreciate the Labour Party's support when we bring the legislation to ratify that deal before the House. I will come back later in the next reply.

This is a different potential economic upheaval than the previous one. It is of a different structure and a different nature. We have provided for the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, which are providing substantial funding. We will have €16 billion by the end of this year in the Future Ireland Fund. Whatever we do, we should try to maintain that as a protector …

I thank the Deputy for his question. The response has to be on an number of levels. First, within the European Union, we will be consulting with and inputting into the Commission. The design of countermeasures is important - that it is not a knee-jerk tit-for-tat-type of response. It has to be calibrated, it has to be strategic, to make sure that whatever do, we do not damage ourselves more by doi…

-----on the grounds of the investor clauses and all of that.

Dáil Éireann has not been in a position to ratify the CETA deal even though it has been in provisional operation since 2018. What does that say about Irish legislators in terms of what matters to the Irish people, what matters for Irish jobs and what is essentially the bread and butter of people's lives on the table?

This works for workers. The trade deal works for workers. That is the point.

It is far too early to make decisions in relation to that right now. We have to see where this lands. I do not believe the capacity to reshore pharmaceuticals in the short term is there. The issue in the short term is more the pausing of investment decisions for the future. That is what would concern me. American companies have grown strong in Ireland. This is a point we are making bilaterally to …

First of all, no school should be in that position. I do not believe there was a necessity to write that letter to the parents at that time, to be frank about it. I have a long-time involvement in education. I have a lot of experience with the education world. In the past, any time a school was in difficulty, dialogue opened up with the Department and the Department always came in to help, particu…

The Deputy has an awful habit of trying to name-call and label people. He does it for political reasons. Sometimes, I question his sincerity in regard to these matters because a letter was sent-----

I am just saying what happened. I am not victim-blaming anybody. I was making a general point. I have been through this before with schools. We help schools when they engage with the Department. It has happened at different times that particular schools have had particular problems. A letter was sent to the chair of the board on 14 March outlining the importance of the role of the FSSU, that is, …

I would make the point that every child attending that primary school now has free schoolbooks, which those children never had before, because the previous Government took really decisive actions to make life better for kids in all schools.

Hot school meals is another initiative that was taken, but Deputy Murphy ignores all of that and makes assertions of neglect or whatever, which is not the case.

That is an awful commentary on the Mail on Sunday.

I agree with the Deputy that tariffs are bad all round. Essentially, they represent a tax on people. They will be a tax on people's groceries and medication in the US. Europe will not respond prematurely or in a knee-jerk way. Europe will engage in a strategic response. The objective of the European Union's response will be to encourage the United States to the negotiating table in order to get a …

Absolutely. We have a very strong aid programme that is conducted by Irish Aid and a number of well-established non-governmental organisations in this field. We will have to provide aid to the people of Myanmar following the earthquake. The slaughter in Gaza continues. We have been one of the biggest supporters of UNRWA; I believe we have provided about €58 million in core support to it. Our overa…

Those are wrong assertions. It is important that the Deputy engages properly on the issue and finds out the facts.

I will go through it here. I have just been on to the Department about the matter. It is not accurate at all that the increase is related to Gaza, and it is wrong to assert that. It is just plain wrong to assert that. Basically, the Department did see an increase in applications for exemptions from October 2023. However, these were representative of an increase in applications for Irish-registered…

There was no connection to the United States military or to Israel. Correlations have been drawn between the initial Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and the increase in applications for exemptions from that month. The two are unrelated. Applications for exemptions predominately fall into one of two categories, namely US civil air operators contracted to carry US military personnel with the…

That case has nothing at all to do with Gaza or America. People just deliberately jump to conclusions to paint the wrong picture about the objectives or intentions of the Government. That is wrong.

I met with the President von der Leyen last week in Paris on the margins of the meeting on Ukraine. At the EU summit the previous week, I also met her to discuss the matter. On Sunday, I had a phone call with President von der Leyen to discuss it further. As stated, we have not had the EU's substantive response yet because the tariffs are only due to be announced tomorrow. On bourbon, those were …

The Tánaiste has been in touch with Secretary of State Lutnick. That communication will continue.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is fair to say that over the past three decades, there have been very extensive inquiries into sexual abuse in this country in almost all settings and it continues. We have to evaluate that experience as well. There have been very extensive inquiries. There has been horrific abuse, which has visited trauma on thousands of people in different settings, …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I pay tribute to An Garda Síochána for the outstanding work it does to keep us all safe and protect society and our citizens. I pay tribute to the Deputy’s family on their distinguished contribution to An Garda Síochána. We are recruiting more and more gardaí. As we recruit more, we will be in a better position to deploy gardaí to Kildare and indeed farth…

This has been an ongoing issue. I am aware that Deputy Paul McAuliffe led on this, and legislation was passed at the time. Implementation is very important. I will ask the Minister for Justice to engage with the Garda Commissioner. As the Deputy knows, the deployment of gardaí is an operational matter. We are told that repeatedly. If you establish more units, you reduce the number of gardaí availa…