Micheál Martin
Cork South-Central · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“At the beginning of April, the Government approved the establishment of the Cork city futures group to guide development of Cork city for the future.”
“We have to have a budget that reflects the need to sustain that level of work in our economy so that people will have access to jobs. The AI issue is causing a lot of concern. I take heart from the investment announced by Intel this week, which will be AI-propelled, actually.”
“Dublin City Council is progressing the establishment of this new legal entity, in line with the timelines laid out in the roadmap; a ten-year integrated area strategy for Dublin city centre to optimise funding and investment and tackle vacancy and dereliction; and accelerated delivery of landmark capital projects in the city centre throug…”
“I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 30, inclusive, together. This will be a long answer because there is one task group and one futures group.”
“I think Deputy Hayes was being a bit petty, if that is the word I am looking for, in what he said about Spain. Well, using the word "petty" might be a bit uncharitable today. It is more a Spain is more vociferous than us kind of thing. We have worked very well together on the Middle East. It is a very serious issue.”
“A dedicated body, to be known as The Cork City Futures Group, will work to unlock the city’s full economic, cultural and academic potential, alongside further investment, innovation and infrastructure. I think people are familiar with the terms of reference.”
The complete record
Every one of 5,818 lines we hold for Micheál Martin, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 12 of 117.
“I pay tribute to St. Joseph's Gaelic football club for its ambition and energy and for serving the community so well. This project represents the manifestation of a further milestone in the club's development and history. I will ask the Minister and endeavour to engage with Uisce Éireann to see if anything can be done here to facilitate what is a very significant community facility for the wider community that will be used by all.”
“I thank the Deputy for his comments. This is a very important issue for people generally, but young people and young couples in particular, in rural Ireland. Given the housing crisis we are in, we simply have to look at every avenue to increase housing capacity. The Minister and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing have been working substantively on this with significant proposals. I envisage that in the next number of weeks, they will bring it to Cabinet. We have had a discussion at the Cabinet subcommittee on this and hopefully it can be brought to a conclusion sar i bhfad.”
“It is a very reasonable point the Deputy is making. It is a good scheme and it has been a good, welcome initiative. We always evaluate initiatives in terms of how they are working. I will speak to the Ministers for energy and Finance in respect of this.”
“-----people of considerable experience and who have had significant impact over the years in respect of Cavan-Monaghan. There has been increased funding overall in terms of roads this year. I will engage with the Ministers for housing and the environment, local authorities and the Minister for public expenditure to make sure we can deal with the significant challenges that people undoubtedly face across the country in respect of roads, road maintenance and restoration.”
“It is absolutely not sustainable and it is not safe for people either. It is not appropriate. It is wrong that people should feel the need to use tents at times. The facilitation of that is something I have issues with. The Government does not support that. The Minister has sought accommodation in different locations but also, the Act itself will lead to much faster treatment of applications. About 70% of applications are decided in the negative; in other words, people do not actually have an entitlement to asylum. The number of negative responses to appeals is quite high as well. Speed in assessing the applications and also the appeals is crucial to this and critical to the avoidance of the kinds of issues the Deputy has raised.”
“I thank Deputy Crowe for his robust advocacy on behalf of St. Joseph's Secondary School and its extension application. I take on board what he said. There has been significant investment in school buildings but, clearly, there is a necessity for more. I will engage with the Minister for education on this issue to see if we can move forward and advance this extension for the benefit of the students who attend the school and, of course, the staff who work there, as well as the wider community. It is a valuable school in a beautiful part of the country. We will certainly do what we can. There are wider issues as well.”
“The Deputy is confused on this one; there is no question about that. The International Protection Act 2026 has been introduced by this Dáil and supported by this Dáil. It will provide a very fair, sustainable, efficient and robust asylum procedure. It will also result in faster dealing with applications and appeals that may be made against those decisions. It will be much faster. It also enables us to return asylum seekers who need to go back to the place where their asylum application originated in Europe. This is strengthening laws in respect of asylum seeking and no amount of shallow, empty soundbites that are used against this legislation will sustain. This is, again, part of a wider agenda to try to instil fear and misinformation.”
“On the exploitation of this by far-right elements in particular, we have to be extremely vigilant of in dealing with this because it is happening in other locations and jurisdictions as well.”
“I appreciate the comments Deputy Coppinger has made. The violence last night in Belfast, the racism on display and the burning out of families because of their ethnicity have to be roundly condemned. It is very dangerous. It puts Northern Ireland in a very difficult and challenging spotlight in terms of where the North goes into the future societally. Some areas are potentially becoming no-go areas because of the colour of someone's skin or their ethnicity, despite the fact they might have been living in an area for quite some time. It is making life very difficult for many families and causing anxiety and stress. It will demand a significant community response and a response from social services. It is a very serious issue.”
“It is interesting that if we look at Irish expenditure over the last number of years in terms of the argument around the sustainability of public expenditure, there is no doubt that there have been a lot of increases, but one metric to evaluate is to look at total gross voted expenditure as a ratio of national output. Basically, we are kind of tracking fairly consistently over the last years, at about 33% through the 2026 to 2030 period.”
“We appreciate the role of the fiscal council. Its reports are a valuable part of the budgetary process. We fully accept there are issues in terms of how we manage our public finances in the context of the revenue. However, the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund have been a success and they have not been funded by borrowing to date.”
“Enforcement is important but education and working with people to change attitudes and culture are also very valuable inputs to this.”
“I read that report and I will engage with the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, and the NPWS. I think we have roughly doubled the staffing level of the NPWS in the past five years and have provided it with additional resources, correctly so. The Minister of State is very focused on the enforcement dimension. There has been good success also in terms of conservation and the biodiversity side of the equation, so to speak. Enforcement is important because we need to stop this crime. It is interesting that in the initial phase of the reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle there were some cases of birds being poisoned many years ago but with education and by working with co-ops and people, a better understanding emerged. That programme is now a resounding success.”
“Laois is a beautiful county but the Deputy's points about investments there are well made. I would give the example of Carlow. For many years, Carlow had an IDA site. When I was Minister for enterprise the IDA even gave up and wanted it to be used for indigenous companies. I advised patience and that we keep going. Eventually Merck Sharp and Dohme arrived to Carlow. It, along with others, has transformed the area industrially. The site is there and we appeal to the IDA to do everything it possibly can to secure a significant, sustainable, high-value industry for the area.”
“The IDA is focusing on high-value manufacturing services and research and development opportunities in the region. Under its 2025 to 2029 property programme, the IDA plans 23 projects nationwide, including an advanced building solution and further business park upgrades in Portlaoise.”
“Regional investment is supported through strong infrastructure, skilled talent and established industrial clusters, which perhaps is an issue in Laois, and available property solutions. Property solutions - suitable sites - are key. The IDA has invested a lot in land and infrastructure across the midlands, particularly in County Laois. About 30 ha are available for development at the IDA business and technology park in Portlaoise. Recent initiatives include supporting ESB infrastructure to increase local power capacity, enhancing site readiness for large-scale investment and securing planning permission for a new internal road to unlock additional development lands. All of these are designed to strengthen Portlaoise's attractiveness for future investments.”
“It is surprising, in contrast, that Laois does not have a more proportionate number of FDI jobs. Some of that may be because there is a significant critical mass of public sector jobs in Laois due to good decentralisation policies of previous Governments, of which Fianna Fáil was a leading member, but we will not go there. I have spoken to the IDA about this. It has happened a lot on the motorways in some other areas as well. I often thought Thurles would have done better because of its location. Not everywhere on the motorway has had quite the same degree of FDI as other places. It does need focus and attention. The IDA aims to secure about 550 of 1,000 investments - about 55% - in regional locations, including a target of 40 investments in the midlands.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, specifically in respect of the industrial activity and the IDA's performance in attracting investment into County Laois. I must say that I find the figure of 150 jobs quite extraordinary. When we look at Laois geographically it is on the motorway. It has critical mass in terms of population and one would have thought that there would have been a natural gravitation of foreign direct investment to Laois because of its proximity to labour markets in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Therefore, it has all the ingredients, one would have thought, to enable more jobs to be located there. Of course, Laois is close to other locations where there are substantial IDA jobs. County boundaries are important but if we look at Kildare, for example, it has an extraordinary number of FDI jobs.”
“I appreciate the Deputy has acknowledged that it is not easy and that there are difficulties in terms of framing legislation within constitutional parameters here. That is at the core of this. I would have much empathy with the broad argument in terms of the disclosure of counselling notes. However, this legislation represents a very significant improvement and strengthening of the legislation on behalf of women, in particular, as opposed to what we had. There had been a request for additional time. My understanding is that was facilitated by the Chief Whip, and there will be two hours and 30 minutes in total this evening for the conclusion of the legislation.”
“Those records often contain highly personal information and are currently routinely disclosed. These reforms will ensure that any disclosure of sensitive material only occurs where necessary and always subject to strict judicial scrutiny. It is a significant strengthening of the law over what we have. It restores the original intent of the original legislation and it is a better balance between competing rights. Of course, the constitutional rights are significant in terms of the accused's rights to a fair trial. The Minister is not just saying this for the sake of saying it. There are significant constitutional issues that have to be navigated in the drafting of this legislation. This is a significant improvement on where we are and it should be acknowledged as such.”
“The Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill endeavours to do that to ensure, in the first instance, that judicial oversight governs the disclosure of any counselling records so that the rights of victims to privacy are always taken into account. On 19 May, the Minister brought forward further amendments to the legislation to further restrict the disclosure of counselling records. In this context, the presumption of non-disclosure was introduced in relation to these records. A presumption of non-disclosure ensures the legal status of these records is that they are not to be released except in certain circumstances. The current protection regime will also be extended to the following personal records: medical records, child protection records and social work records.”
“The reforms the previous Government and this one have introduced, particularly the establishment of Cuan, the expansion of refuge places, which needs to happen faster and at a more accelerated pace if we can get the infrastructure delivered, and a range of other measures are testament to that. There are also cultural issues and issues to deal with the increased prevalence of violent pornography online and so forth, which we really have to deal with and which is a factor in the level of violence against women and the misogyny we are experiencing in our societies. The Minister has sought within the constitutional framework and within constitutional parameters to deal with the issue of disclosure.”
“At the outset, the Deputy made an assertion in respect of the Minister. She kind of made a few leaps and sort of said that the Minister is saying that women lie in court cases. That is outrageous and should be withdrawn. There is no room for that in debates of this kind. We are all coming to this issue in a bona fide way. That is the first point I would make. There is no agenda here. We agree that violence against women and domestic violence, in particular, is at an appalling level. There are multiple factors responsible for that and legislation can help.”
“We need to let the report speak for itself. It does not have a finding of a cover-up, a conspiracy or collusion. We have to be true to the report of the commission. However, it does have a finding of gross dereliction of duty and the need to reform the law in that respect, which the Minister will now be pursuing with the Law Reform Commission, as recommended by the commission. Yes, we can do better. The State has initiated quite a range of inquiries, as the Deputy iterated, going back to the industrial schools. We have a scoping inquiry under way on the victims of Michael Shine. The Minister for Health is working on that and also on other inquiries at the moment. We must also make sure that State authorities and every official are aware of all the responsibilities people have in respect of any reporting and the necessity to report.”
“It seems to me that the recommendation that has been made pertains to the failure of An Garda Síochána in terms of that central failure to prosecute, and to do what one would consider to be the basic investigative response required to deal with the facts and the position that were known at the time. There were then failures to alert others. There was a failure to alert the Vikings basketball club by people who knew. To be very straight, there was a failure to notify the Fianna Fáil Party locally. That is very clear in the report. It was not notified at that time-----”
“That, in my view, and also some failings in terms of the health board at the time, demand a State apology. That is my clear reading of the report so far. There is no equivocation by the commission in terms of that central conclusion in respect of the failure to deal with this properly and comprehensively at the time, even by the standards of the day. The report goes into the contrast, which it describes as profound, in terms of the understanding and the framework and edifice we have in place today for child protection, but even by the standards of the late 1980s the commission says it is absolutely not acceptable. There is then also the behaviour of others, including the former public representative, former TD, Brendan Kenneally, at the time. The commission is very clear that it fell below the standards that one would expect.”
“First of all, I want to say without equivocation that the crimes committed by Bill Kenneally were absolutely horrific over a prolonged period of time and caused immense trauma and suffering to many people and families. I am reading through the report, like Deputy Bacik. The judge, Michael White, has been very clear in terms of the central finding of a failure and a dereliction of duty in relation to the way An Garda Síochána dealt with this, particularly in 1987 when the perpetrator himself, Bill Kenneally, was in the Garda station and almost acknowledged culpability in respect of this, and the failure to do things properly in terms of taking statements and sending them to the DPP at the time. There are wider issues as to why the Garda was not in a position to do that and so forth, but I am not going to go through that here.”
“I mentioned already family support payments and the cost-of-disability initiative. There is a wide range of areas, if you bring them all together, that will make a meaningful difference. Of course, there is the investment in core services as well. What can alleviate a lot of pressures on people is providing other supports such as-----”
“As I said, we are going to do it. We did give the commitment that it would happen over the lifetime of the Government. I would not underestimate the step we have already taken because I think that when this lands in July, the increase in the income disregard will actually be quite significant, maybe more significant than people thought. We will make a further significant move in the forthcoming budget and I think we will be well on the way then to eliminating the means test. Of course, there is a wide variety of measures we have to take to improve the situation for carers and people with disabilities more generally. We are looking at a new transport scheme to be introduced by the Department of Transport and the Minister for Transport, which we have been working on in the Cabinet subcommittee on disability.”
“There was a focus network summit on 13 May last in respect of that specific issue, which was hosted by the Minister for Social Protection.”
“Since 2020, that is, in the past five years, the weekly child support payment has increased by 95% for children aged 12 or over and by 61% for children under 12. I heard the Children's Rights Alliance this morning describe that as a significant move, although recent inflation in fuel prices has negated it to some extent. Nonetheless, it is recognised generally as a more targeted way of dealing with child poverty. We have increased the fuel allowance. We increased the domiciliary care allowance by €20, bringing it to €380 per month now. That has gone up by €70 since 2022. We are progressively increasing key payments that will help carers and children who are being cared for. The Minister is also working on proposals, and there has been a public consultation, in respect of the cost-of-disability payment. A lot of work has been done on that.”
“That is a significant step taken already in respect of the programme for Government commitment to abolish the means test for carer's allowance over the lifetime of the Government, which is the commitment we made. In addition to that, the carer's support grant of €2,000 is paid this month. We will in the forthcoming budget further develop on that commitment and further realise it in terms of the income disregard and the means test. We increased the core weekly social welfare rates by €10. The highest ever increases in child support payments occurred in the last budget. I took a keen interest in that with the Minister, Dara Calleary, because of the unit in my Department dealing with child poverty. We increased the child support payment for children aged 12 or over by €16 to €78 and for children under 12 by €8 to €58.”
“The Government does acknowledge and takes very seriously the role of carers in our society. I acknowledge that we have made commitments in the programme for Government, particularly the commitment in terms of the weekly income disregard and that we would eliminate the means test, essentially. Already, as part of the most recent budget, and from this July, the weekly income disregard will increase from €625 to €1,000 for a single person and from €1,250 to €2,000 for carers who are part of a couple. The latest reforms will result in more carers qualifying for carer's allowance. In effect, it means that a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €110,000 will still retain their full carer's payment, and even with an income of €138,000 will retain a partial payment.”
“Such threats are appalling and must be roundly condemned. Unfortunately, it has become a phenomenon in this era that there are increasing numbers of threats to public representatives across the board. To threaten the Lord Mayor in the context of yesterday and the day before is appalling and has to be condemned. All threats to public representatives have to be condemned. Unfortunately, both the Garda and the PSNI are pursuing too many cases where threats are made to the lives of politicians in this House, in the Northern Assembly or, in this case, to the Lord Mayor. We all join in condemning that. We also have to face down racism. We also have to make sure that our Garda here and the PSNI in the North are adequately resourced and supported without any equivocation-----”
“I watched some of the commentary from some social media outlets, and some media platforms of a particular orientation or political disposition which, to say the very least, was decidedly unhelpful in terms of how they portrayed the events of the past 48 hours. There can never be any implied justification for the attacks of last evening.”
“In this instance, we fully support the PSNI in terms of its investigation of both the crime against that young individual and the violence and criminal activity in evidence last evening across the North but particularly in Belfast. An Garda Síochána will continue to work with the PSNI in terms of the broader issues that relate to this. More fundamentally, we must call on all citizens to support the police, in this instance the PSNI, to get swift justice in respect of the appalling attack two nights ago, but also in terms of those who targeted individuals in their homes and burned out people from their homes. This brings back appalling memories of incidents of this kind from the late 1960s and early 1970s but it has a particular manifestation in today’s world.”
“What we witnessed last evening is absolutely appalling - that families would be burned out of their homes because of race or ethnic reasons. I join with all Members of this House in condemning unreservedly the attacks of last evening. They were orchestrated. We have had evidence of this in other countries where situations like this are exploited, which results in the violence of the type we saw last evening. All of us have to be very vigilant and clear in standing up for fundamental, human values in terms of the dignity of every single individual in our society. We uphold and defend the dignity of every single individual irrespective of what transpires or occurs and fully support the rule of law.”
“The events of the last few days in Northern Ireland have filled us with horror. The attack on that young person two nights ago was absolutely savage and horrific. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family. It is beyond our comprehension that a person could wield such violence on another individual in such a manner. The very graphic representation of that on social media has shocked many people. Like the Deputy, I salute the courage of Maitiu Mág Tighearnán for his very brave intervention to essentially save the life of the victim. The violence of last night has to be roundly condemned. I pay tribute to all of the political leaders who yesterday responded in the first instance to the attack of the previous evening, and for the unified message condemning any attacks on individuals, families and homes.”
“That is why we are doing the reforms that we are doing. Not everybody likes it, but we believe it is better to do it the way we are proposing so we get the therapies to the people faster and get earlier interventions than is currently the case.”
“In fact, it is exacerbating the situation. It has meant there are fewer therapists available for services than for assessments. We are trying to get a more common-sense approach to this, so that the preponderance of therapy would be allocated to children in the earlier stages and they would have access to the therapists much earlier than they have currently. We need to do more, look at how therapists are deployed and ask how we can get the maximum outcomes from interventions. Deputy Heneghan raised the northside home care workers, which I spoke about earlier. I also spoke about Friedreich's ataxia. I will come back to him about the home care workers; I think I have already outlined to Deputy Quaide and other Deputies the situation with Friedreich's ataxia. Deputy Ward raised waiting times for disabilities. Early intervention is key.”
“They have not heard anything. I will follow up because it is now June. If people want to get enrolled by September something has to happen. I will raise it with the Minister of State, Michael Moynihan and the Minister, Hildegarde Naughton. Deputy O'Rourke said the meeting to consider the drug for Duchenne is tomorrow. I hope we will get a positive outcome from that and can make progress. There has been a fair degree of representation and advocacy in that regard from both Houses. Deputy Wall raised St. Anne's special school in the Curragh. That is a new school project. It is at stage 2B. We will engage with the Minister in respect of that. This is a special school that needs to be provided. Deputy Tóibín heard Deputy Mark Ward and others talking about access to services. The existing system is not working at all.”
“Deputy Whitmore raised a new special school for Wicklow. I will have to follow up on that. Is she saying absolutely nothing has happened since then?”
“The Government works well with them. However, it is something I will raise with the Minister to see whether we have a proper audit of the provision of service and there is a sufficiency of service for those with mild or moderate learning disabilities. Deputy O'Callaghan raised St. Francis school. It was raised earlier in the Order of Business, presumably by his Sinn Féin constituency colleague. Apparently it went through the independent appeals process. It is one pupil short of the criteria governing the appointment of teachers and the enrolment numbers. I will raise it with the Minister, but the Minister made it clear to the Deputy that the independent appeals process made a decision on it. I do not know whether or not it is a growing population area or there is some manoeuvrability for the decision makers.”
“That is the point. That is what invariably happens with industrial relations so that may be the factor here. I accept Deputy Paul Murphy's general point. The incidence of autism seems to have grown dramatically. Although some say it is better diagnosed, I am not so sure any more. The numbers are significant in terms of expansion of services in health, but particularly in education. Even this year it has been significant. In the most recent census, in comparison with the previous one, there has been an exponential increase in adults and children declaring a disability. There is a challenge that in the overarching focus on autism, other disabilities perhaps do not get the same attention or focus. General disability special classes are important, such as for Down's syndrome. There are good organisations that advocate for Down's syndrome.”
“I will endeavour to engage with the Department of public expenditure on this and with all concerned to see if we can find a way to deal with this.”
“The Minister is taking other actions as well to make sure that if a positive decision was to emerge in the next number of weeks, we could make sure a green light could be given. Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the Northside Home Care issue. Obviously, the industrial relations can be quite complex in terms section 39 organisations and WRC agreements. Every decision taken in relation to any one group does not stay with the one group. It has read across to other scenarios as well. I do not know whether that is the core issue here in terms of the nature of Northside Home Care and whether structure of it is the problem in terms of the application of the section 39 resolution of this through the WRC, which took a considerable length of time following the public service pay agreement. Deputy Heneghan also raised this.”
“It was never scheduled for tomorrow but I think Givinostat is. However, we are hoping we can bring forward consideration of Skyclarys by the HSE's drugs group. We have about 200 families who are living with Friedreich's ataxia. I am very conscious of this as is the Minister. For the record of the House, I laid out earlier the information I was provided with in terms of the engagement between the HSE and the company. What is more important now is that we try to get this over the line as quickly as we possibly can in accordance with the procedures and processes that are laid out. Time is running out for many people, not least young Paudie himself who needs this as fast as we possibly can provide it.”
“That is a potentially powerful catalyst in every local authority area with the right people recruited who could look at the full range of policies across a local authority from housing to pedestrian access to roads to access to buildings to ensure the entire philosophy of local authorities is imbued with implementing the human-rights based strategy for disabled people. I will revert to the Deputy on where we are on that and the coverage across the country. It is something the Government is interested in expanding. On Deputy Quaide's contribution, I met Craig Coady yesterday with Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan. It was a very heartrending meeting. What the family has gone through is quite shocking. I have spoken to the Minister about this. We will do everything we can to accelerate consideration of Skyclarys provision.”
“We also have to get the balance right between decongregation and new provision because if all the resources just go into decongregation, there are no resources for new provision. We have to try to work with all concerned in trying to find a way through this. I am just being honest and open here. The current situation is not sustainable - I am very clear about that. Both Departments are now working together to try to unblock that for the families concerned. On Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan’s question, I will have to check. My understanding was that progress was being made in terms of the lead positions. On the national disability lead, I will talk to the Minister in respect of that. I will come back to the Deputy on that. Deputy McGreehan raised disability access officers.”
“The local authority will have to work proactively with the families and the health service to make sure the appropriate balance of care is provided. A lot of people with disabilities are in the position to manage so a continuum of care is required here. The last meeting of the disability group discussed this in some considerable detail. Having met the Before We Die group, it was clear the parents were being asked to jump hurdles that were really not appropriate, in my view. We should be more proactive as a State in helping them along this journey to try to provide for their children - particularly on the accommodation side. I met one parent who said her two sons could manage quite well with a bit of support and did not need anything too extraordinary. Others would need far more intensive care in a residential environment.”