Micheál Martin

It is clearly a day of hyperbole.

Of course, we have intervened in the cost of living over the past three to four years. More than any other government in Europe, we intervened with our allocations, both in the once-off cost-of-living interventions that we made for over two years at huge cost, but then with more permanent measures such as the free books scheme, which is a substantial reduction in costs for parents and families of …

We are investing in renewables to an unprecedented extent. Between 40% and 45% of all electricity generation is through renewables in Ireland today, and approximately 40% through gas. One of the structural problems with this, of course, is across Europe there is a coupling of gas and very often gas dictates the ultimate price. Price caps generally do not work and we would need to consider that ver…

I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to Denise Whitmore, Mark and the entire family on the tragic loss of baby Éadha, and the very difficult and traumatic circumstances of both Denise's pregnancy and what subsequently happened with the travel to the United Kingdom, particularly the journey back. As the Deputy knows, the legislation came as a result of the constitutional referendum we had in res…

This will be reviewed by the Government. I thank Denise Whitmore for speaking out because we need to hear her voice and the voice of women in situations like this.

In our party we have a free vote, and I initiated that well over a decade ago on matters pertaining to life and death. Let us acknowledge that this has been a hugely contested area in our country. It was a major decision by the Irish people, and one I supported, as the Deputy knows, both inside and outside the House, in respect of the change that occurred. The Government will examine the review, …

I disagree with the very false narrative the Deputy has put before the House in respect of the Government's position on renewables. It is a deliberately created false narrative by the Green Party in order to present the idea that it is indispensable to climate change. I have to say that strongly because I really reject what the Deputy has said. I think it is wrong and it is deliberately wrong. We …

You did.

I had them around the table. The Secretary General of my Department chairs it. I attend it and I chair for the hour and go through it. We have brought in industry and every single Government Department. We have talked to all the various agencies involved as well to look at any generic obstacles that we can remove, or any barriers to accelerate offshore wind. We have carried out an onshore wind rev…

The Deputy keeps articulating his false narrative, but that does not make the narrative true. It is a dishonest portrayal of the Government's commitment in this area. We are a bit more pragmatic than the Green Party was, I would respectfully suggest. I have great respect for the Deputy and his party in many areas-----

-----but we are far more pragmatic in how we are going to deliver this and get it done faster than would have been the case.

Last year the RESS 5 and the ORESS Tonn Nua auctions were delivered and at a very competitive price for consumers with both auctions clearing. I will not go through the specific prices. RESS 5 involves 1 GW of new renewable electricity capacity. The Deputy knows this. A lot of good groundwork was done by the last Government but the Deputy's predecessor knew exactly the timelines as well as everybo…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I appreciate there are concerns but I would say to all public representatives of all parties that we need to imbue in our nation a sense of strategic direction. Historically, we got it right in terms of utilities. That underpinned inward investment into this country and economic development without question. We are at a tipping point now in respect of whet…

I could not agree more. It is something that has annoyed me a bit. I have been talking to various Ministers. We have to incentivise rain harvesting for non-drinking purposes and there are a lot of easy ways of doing that. We are all waiting for the summer. Hopefully, we will get a bit of sun. If we get the inevitable banning of utilisation of water for the garden or whatever, we will all eat our h…

The Deputy make things up as she goes along. I was not in government in 2017 and neither was my party but that is not the point. There was good rationale for colocation. The Deputy knows that.

Everybody agrees with colocation.

The essentials of colocation are there. We did not starve the Rotunda of funding. How dare the Deputy say that? I just opened facilities. There has been investment in the Rotunda. This is an important development.

In our view, the expansion that is required is important for the protection of women and newborn babies. We would have preferred if planning was given. In our view, it was still justified, notwithstanding whatever happened in 2017 in terms of the colocation declaration. All of the medical world believes in colocation.

Not physically.

We are working flat out. We have allocated €15 million to support the post office network. We had allocated funding last year and the year before to maintain the post office network. I cannot get into every specific post office, obviously, but generally speaking we are very supportive of the postmasters. We understand the role that post offices play in communities the length and breadth of the cou…

There is no question that people under pressure. We introduced targeted measures in the budget. I do not know whether the Deputy agrees with a targeted approach.

We did that in the budget and one of the manifestations of that is the fact that 50,000 people this Thursday will get the fuel allowance who otherwise would not have got it in previous years - those on the working family payment. They will get back pay of about €380 next week but they are getting notification this week on Thursday. We keep everything under review and it is important that we do tha…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a really important issue for the community of Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire. I will certainly speak to Minister for education on this. I do not have a clear timeline yet on the issue. Obviously, there was a contractual conflict that resulted in us ending up where we are now. The suspension of works notice issued in May last year and the termination of the contrac…

Did the Deputy say it was starting in April?

I will engage with Irish Water on this. If it is April well and good. The Deputy is saying it could go back to May. We are now in March so we are not too far away from getting this work done.