On Deputy Conway-Walsh's question, I too welcome the students from Coláiste Pobail Acla. Cuirim fáilte faoi leith rompu chuig Teach Laighean. On the facilities for young people, working with the LEADER programme, county councils and the State, we can provide good quality youth centres. I have been in different parts of the country where some have done it better than others. I was recently in Tulla and there is a fine…
TDs / Micheál Martin
Micheál Martin
Taoiseach
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
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questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
688,766
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686,628 as a minister, 2,138 as a TD
197
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Debates they spoke in most
Plus 6,426 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Cork South-Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
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At the outset, I also extend my deepest sympathies on the floor of the House to the family, friends and colleagues of Garda Kevin Flatley. Our thoughts and prayers are particularly with his wife Una and his daughters Aoife and Erin. He died in the line of duty, which is a reminder to us of the dangers that members of An Garda Síochána go through day after day as part of their mission to keep us all safe and prevent c…
We can come back on it later. The fundamental point is that no one is ducking, diving or dodging anything and it is unfair to suggest that. We want completion. It is far better for everybody if a complete report is issued and published, and then we can act on it.
If Deputy McDonald does not mind me saying so, she is being somewhat disingenuous. Nobody is stonewalling and no one is refusing to give information.
I thought the obvious thing to do, and we may have this sooner than Deputy McDonald might think, is to wait for the audit report to be published and given to the Minister. That is logical. Otherwise, all Deputy McDonald is asking for is drip-drip and bits of information here and there,-----
-----which would only add to the anxiety and concern of parents.
Yes.
If I may, I did not interrupt.
Experience tells me that when we ask someone to do an external audit independent of politicians and Government, we should just let them finish their work and have the totality of their work available for us to assess, and then take action based on that. Of course, that audit has to be shared with the public, the parents, in the first instance, and the patients. There is always follow-u…
The Deputy clearly then understands the context-----
-----of why they will be written to.
I disagree with the Deputy's analysis of the Government's response to vacancy and dereliction. The vacant homes action plan progress report 2025 highlighted the breadth of action the Government is taking to support bringing vacant properties back into use as homes. Key areas of progress include the successful delivery of the vacant property refurbishment grant, with over 11,300 applications received, 7,700 approvals …
Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor. Níl an ceart aici. Ní raibh na deontais atá ann anois maidir le tithe atá folamh agus mar sin de ann riamh. Is léir sin ón méid daoine atá ag fáil deontas sa lá atá inniu ann. I do not agree with the Deputy. The refurbishment grant for derelict buildings was not there four years ago. It has had a very significant impact and the Deputy should be good enough to acknowledge that.
The only criticism I remember was that a TV programme gave details of the grants. It was considered politically wrong to let the public know they could avail of a grant if they wanted to buy and refurbish a derelict building or vacant house. These grants have been spectacularly successful and we need more of them.
Some local authorities have been good on social housing but others have not been. We need to call that …
It is not always about handouts. You can go around certain local authority estates and see six vacant houses. Millions are not needed to put those houses back into use. They should never be vacant for beyond a month. I am not just saying this now; I have said this to local authorities time and again. We have taken void initiative after void initiative.
The dependency culture kicks, that they will fill a void if give…
First of all, every child is entitled and has a constitutional right to an education. It is our job as the Government to vindicate that right. I do not accept the Deputy's presentation that the Government does not care. The Government does care. There is evidence of that. I do not want to go through all the statistics as that does not console a particular parent or family who are having difficulty in getting confirma…
The Deputy is correct. As I said, 399 new special classes for the next year have already been sanctioned in the past month. This has been done much earlier than in previous years. I do not have a detailed report in terms of each particular class. There are many with which there are no difficulties, but there are some in respect of which there are difficulties in terms of the logistics of getting them built, getting m…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue.
I join Deputy Bacik - I omitted to do so earlier - in expressing my deepest sympathies to the families of Emmanuel Familola and Matt Sibanda and the community in Donegal on the sad and shocking drownings at the weekend of the two young teenagers who were enjoying themselves with their friends. What happened made for a very sad weekend altogether.
In respect of the issue ra…
In relation to the Deputy's general comments, a lot of huge advances have been made in our health service as well. In fact, through the various layers of management on hospital sites now, we know a great deal of data is being collected in respect of individual patients once they enter a hospital and go in for particular treatment. A lot of information is garnered in respect of every individual patient nowadays. There…
It is getting to the front line.
We cannot be that superficial about it. Of course it is going to the front line.
Sorry, we need-----
Some €25.8 billion has been allocated to health in 2025. That is six or seven times ahead of the figures from four or five years ago. The value-for-money thing needs to happen as well, and on another fine day the Deputy will be in here rightly raising those issues. He cannot have it both ways though. It is always a question-----
We will be allocating more to health. We do need to analyse it as well. Separate from the normal funding going into acute and tertiary services, we accept we need investment in the digital health area and we-----
No, it has not happened since the Deputy raised it last week. There has been a lot happening in the past week. The extension of voting rights for Irish citizens overseas is a complex and technical matter because that was the subject of the Bill originally.
It was both overseas and the North originally in 2020.