Micheál Martin

Deputy Bacik calls for reform but when reform happens and decisions are taken - none of this is easy because it is a complex landscape - she will continue to sit on the fence.

What happened in Wexford is unacceptable.

The Minister sent the Residential Tenancies Board down.

The Deputy makes all sorts of accusations against the Government, which are unfounded. She claims the moral high ground on everything. I have met with survivors from Bessborough and many did not want the forensic exhumation or examination of the site. They want a memorial and they want it to be respected. My own view is that it would have been far more preferable if-----

I did not interrupt the Deputy.

I did not interrupt the Deputy. Do not be so morally condescending, which is her wont. I have as much concern for people as she has but her tone is always one of condescension on these matters. I have spoken to survivors. I was about to say that I would have preferred if the city council had acquired Bessborough, which should have happened many years ago, for amenity purposes, and recreation-----

-----and memorialisation. We do not have a say as an executive authority in planning applications or planning decisions by An Bord Pleanála or its operations.

I have been very clear that the action taken is not in accordance with a UN mandate. I have been equally clear about the powerlessness and paralysis of the international rules-based order as it is via the UN Security Council. I am also very conscious that for years the Deputy has been very silent in terms of Iranian atrocities.

I did not interrupt you, Deputy.

I have never interrupted-----

We will be charitable. The Deputy has put many the wrong spin on things I have said over the years and I am under no illusion-----

They do not.

I just did earlier, if you were listening. I did, actually.

Go back and check.

The Deputy cannot have it both ways. We did establish the tribunal. That was a commitment a previous Government and former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave. The tribunal was established in good faith. People always have the entitlement to take their case through the courts if they so wish, but that tribunal, introduced by the former Minister, Stephen Donnelly, at the time, had a very broad framework in…

My understanding is the UK Government may have introduced new travel requirements on this. I will pursue this with the UK Government and with Aer Lingus.

I just got some information. I will check it for the Deputy and I will pursue it. I understand many Donegal people travel for different reasons----

-----sporting, especially.

Practical, that is what I am saying.

There is lots of to and fro from Donegal.

If there was a medal to be awarded for the best contributor of the week, the Deputy would be most deserving of it because he is a lone voice among many voices whose only inclination and focus is on spending more money, calling on Government to keep on spending more money and spend as much as we can. He is the first person in a long time who has stood up and said that public expenditure in itself i…

We should be very focused on outputs, outcomes, value for money and somebody in here supporting the taxpayer every now and again. I salute that. It is an awful pity the Minister for public expenditure did not hear him because he would feel a bit less lonely in the overall scheme of things than he currently does in keeping a rein on public expenditure. I agree with the Deputy that capital expenditu…

I acknowledge that there are challenges with delays here. I will discuss this with the Minister. We had a meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on health yesterday. A lot of progress has been made on waiting times and on health in general. Some very significant progress has been made. There is a lot of investment yet to come in terms of capacity on the current side and on the infrastructure side. Ho…

The advice is very clear: to shelter in place and to register with the relevant embassy for the country in which they are based so that there can be clear communication between our embassies and Irish citizens. All options are being, and will be, pursued to help our citizens. The immediate situation is very challenging because it is unsafe. Emirates and Etihad got opportunities yesterday; they got…

As the Deputy said, €24 million was allocated for this facility in the capital plan. We need to work through the design. Under the acceleration of critical infrastructure, we hope that they will follow through on the work the Minister, Deputy Chambers, has done on fast-tracking these developments. Yesterday, I met with the HSE chief executive along with the Minister at the Cabinet subcommittee on …