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.”
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“The problem for the FAI and the football team, and it should not be on them, is that there will be consequences for the football team. To be fair to the Irish football team, it has made a lot of ground recently. It has had good success and is building on that platform. I do not control FIFA, which I think should deal with this globally, as should UEFA in its remit, but the bottom line could be that the football team suffers in terms of seedings and all the rest. That would have repercussions down the line for other competitions ahead. We need to act at European level. I think that is a far more effective way of dealing with the issue.”
“I am not involved with FIFA, or UEFA for that matter, but I believe the Deputy is correct in saying that, at EU level, we should be dealing in a more robust and stronger way in terms of suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement. I have just met the High Representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, and have been making that point. I think she is appreciative of the very strong feeling of opinion in Ireland in respect of that. The challenge has been to try to win over a critical majority of member states to that opinion. We have written to the EU Council. I want the issue on the EU Council's meeting next week and we want to see if we can get a vote on the issue of the suspension of that association agreement. That is the Government taking its role.”
“Subsequently, we co-sponsored a resolution at the UN General Assembly seeking to implement the court's advisory opinion. We have been evacuating sick children, along with other countries, from Gaza. We have supported about 300 people to leave Gaza to travel to Ireland since the crisis began, and we have done much more than that. On the match involving the Football Association of Ireland, UEFA and FIFA have their rules for members of their organisations. Their rules provide that the national football governance bodies must act independently and be free of political interference. A series of countries have been suspended from international competition in the past because of political interference. That is the reality of it.”
“I appreciate the Deputy has raised quite a range of issues. I will take Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the Middle East first. Ireland has taken a stand against Israel internationally and that is well recognised internationally and within the European Union. We continue on the humanitarian side to give very substantive contributions to the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA – close to €150 million at this stage. Of course we have also recognised the State of Palestine. We also intervened in South Africa's International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. We made a submission, by the Attorney General, to the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel's actions in the occupied territories.”
“The investment has been substantial in the last five years. In terms of the Deputy's question about Sláintecare, I do not think what she said about the lack of investment was fair. We could continue to invest more and more in health, but anybody looking at the last five years will see an extraordinary uptick and scaling up of investment in the public health service.”
“I did answer the question. I said the money should be refunded. I made that clear in my original reply. The Minister is concerned about the operation of the public-only consultant contract throughout the entirety of the health service and in all hospitals. There is no going back from the position that we negotiated fully, transparently and comprehensively. Over the last five years, there has been an extraordinary level of investment in our health service at a scale that has dwarfed anything the previous-----”
“I will make my point generally. There is an issue here. We are very clear; we support what the Deputy is saying and, as far as we are concerned, a private model is not sustainable in maternity and, therefore, we want to build and develop hospitals where there is universal access and where, eventually, we will move to public-only consultants. Some have opted out of that, and that is their entitlement under the agreement. The patient should be refunded because this should not have happened in the first instance. These contracts were transparently signed up to by all concerned, including the hospital with regard to its service level agreement with the HSE.”
“I recall when we built the maternity hospital in Cork, which is actually a very good example. In fact, in Cork, you had a ridiculous situation where if you went to the Bon Secours Hospital, when it was private, and there was a complication, you were sent straight away to the Erinville Hospital, the public hospital, because it was the only hospital that had a neonatal. That was a fairly rudimentary neonatal at the time because I recall having to make decisions around all of that subsequently. When we decided to build a maternity hospital in Cork, the Bon Secours Hospital acknowledged that it would not be able to sustain as a private maternity hospital.”
“The Minister was very clear from the beginning and I was 100% behind her in respect of her position, having been in the last Government with the previous Minister, the former Deputy Donnelly, in negotiating this contract, which was signed off by the representative organisation of the consultants, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, IHCA. People cannot sign contracts and then casually deviate from those contracts. On the question of safety, in my view, the private model of care in obstetrics and maternity is not sustainable. It has not been sustainable for a long time. The State had to intervene a long time ago - well over 20 years ago - in terms of indemnifying obstetricians and gynaecologists in respect of maternity care, given that the insurance costs and so on were just not sustainable for any individual consultant.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. I appreciate her party's support for the Government's position on this and that of the Minister for Health because a lot was at stake here, not just for maternity services but for the entire edifice that should govern public health and the provision of public health into the future in our acute tertiary system. The Government took a decision following negotiations in respect of the public-only consultant contract, which is a cornerstone of the Sláintecare framework and policy. In our view, our very clear reading of this was that it was an attempted breach of the fundamental position regarding the public-only consultant. We were very clear from the beginning.”
“We have also increased the number of deportation orders quite significantly over the past while. The importance of this is that it enables us to return migrants back to countries where they probably originated with their applications.”
“To be fair to the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, he has brought in and is very focused on a firm, robust migration system with much faster times in terms of administration of the initial phase of the applications and on the appeal phase to get it done much faster. That is what we are doing.”
“Deputy McDonald cannot even give a specific reason or area where we do. She has had four and a half minutes and it has been sound bite after sound bite with no substance behind it. The bottom line is that Irish officials will still make the decisions in terms of applicants. The Garda Síochána will still police our borders. Ireland will still be in control our deportation process.”
“She knows that the new Act is bringing in a new appeals process, but the existing appeals process under the old framework continues apace to deal with all of the cases that were applied for prior to the introduction of this Act. The Deputy knows that and the Sinn Féin spokespeople know that, yet you come in here and deliberately distort the truth in terms of the legislation. It is about time you stopped playing these kind of games because we are dealing with people here too - human beings - and all Sinn Féin is interested in is exploiting it for electoral advantage. However, Sinn Féin's problem is that when the far right start shouting, it goes over there and genuflects and when the far left does it, it throws in a few things about human rights and so on.”
“We have never had a situation where legislation was passed and an attempt was made to try and fool the people into believing that it is all going to happen this week, when in fact this has been debated at great length in the House already. The Act the Minister brought through the House provides for faster processing, including a border procedure for applicants to have all decisions and appeals concluded within three months. The Deputy referenced the chief appeals officer to the tribunal for asylum seekers as if it was the first time ever. How dishonest is she prepared to be when she is talking about these issues in the House?”
“Irish officials will still make decisions on whether applicants are granted protection status, An Garda Síochána will still police our borders and Ireland will still control our deportation process, so the pact does not result in Ireland giving up its sovereignty in the area of immigration and no amount of empty, shallow, soundbites will change that reality and that truth. That is all Sinn Féin is about - all its postings and the online stuff. It is as if this Act was never debated in the Dáil. A flurry of activity was created last week by all sorts online and filling everyone's emails about something desperate that is going to happen in the next week because of this pact coming in. The Act has been signed off on by the President following its passage through the House.”
“Sinn Féin voted in favour of opting into two parts of the pact in the European Parliament in April 2024 through its MEP Chris MacManus - the asylum and migration management regulation and the Eurodac regulation. Eurodac is the EU's asylum and migration database and is the corner-stone of the implementation of the EU pact on asylum and migration. Of course, Sinn Féin turned tack again and changed its position when the International Protection Act came before the House. It was not rushed through the House. There was pre-legislative scrutiny, a long debate on Second Stage and it went through Committee Stage. It is a very comprehensive piece of legislation. We are not ceding any sovereignty. We are not giving away any decision-making powers.”
“Tá an méid atá ráite ag an Teachta dochreidte. Níl sí macánta faoin cheist seo in aon chor. Níl sí ceart ach an oiread. Caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil cúrsaí polaitíochta i gceist aici. Níl sí i ndáiríre in aon chor maidir leis an gceist seo. The Deputy is being very dishonest in her presentation of this issue. She is being deliberately manipulative and is endeavouring to win votes on the back of the migration issue. The problem for Sinn Féin is that it is flip-flopping all over the place. Sometimes when the far left and the far right unite against legislation, I think we have hit the right spot. Sinn Féin does not know which way to turn or which way to jump at any given time on this issue because Deputy McDonald's assertion that her party has opposed the asylum pact from the very beginning is simply not true.”
“That is the first positive step in this, and we will bring the three Ministers and their Departments together to get moving on this.”
“Broadly speaking, I favour what the Deputy says in terms of a proper regulatory framework. In many instances, established practices and existing laws have not been comprehensive enough to deal with all of the issues relating to road safety, including the general safety of people, and there are also the issues of equine welfare and animal welfare concerns. The welfare of equines is protected by legislation. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to build on existing inspectorate supports across the country, ensuring a consistent approach to dealing with horse welfare. I understand that correspondence has been exchanged this week between the Ministers for agriculture, Transport and justice with a view to arranging an initial scoping meeting at official level.”
“I think I was at the site some time back, albeit not when the school was operational. It was a private school for many years and came over to the public system in 2012. It is an historic listed building. It is my understanding that modular provision has been made. I am getting a lot of prompts from behind me from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who is very familiar with the issue as well. It is an historic building and in fairness to the community there, it provides a significant contribution to education. The modular buildings will hopefully deal with the interim requirements, but I take the Deputy's overall point in terms of a new school building.”
“I fully accept the urgency and seriousness of this for those who require Skyclarys. The engagement between the HSE and the company has perhaps at times been problematic. When I saw "problematic", delays have taken place, but meetings did happen. I will talk to the Minister again to see if we can get an outcome to this as quickly as we possibly can for all concerned.”
“I will engage with Iarnród Éireann on this. A lot of expansion is happening and there are a lot of costs attached to it, investment required and so on like that. On the specifics of what the Deputy has raised, I will communicate to Iarnród Éireann his concerns in terms of the lack of frequency of such services.”
“I have been a lifetime advocate for family resource centres and, in government, Fianna Fáil has always been very supportive of them. That is why we approved in the last budget ten new family resource centres. The Minister also levelled up certain family resource centres because there were different levels of core funding to different centres. I will talk to the Minister to see what we can do in the forthcoming Estimate in the context of the core grant to such resource centres because I do believe that they provide a very strong, multidisciplinary and holistic facility and service to communities and families.”
“I am going to come back to the Deputy on that. I will talk to the Minister in respect of that specific issue but the idea that there has not been investment or significant resources allocated to GPs needs to be questioned.”
“First of all, there has been very significant investment in GP services, significant increases in recruitment and additional placements and positions in our third level colleges. Parallel with that, there has also been the expansion of pharmacy in its role in primary care, which should not be dismissed either. I would argue that a lot of investment under the various negotiations have occurred in respect of primary care and particularly in terms of GP care.”
“That is about 448 additional whole-time equivalents. Waiting lists are coming down. The Minister is also changing the modus operandi in terms of how things will be done.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I know he has been advocating strongly on behalf of children and families in Cavan-Monaghan. Those counties have been facing some of the longest waits in the country for children's therapies. The root cause of that has been a chronic staffing deficit. At the Deputy's instigation, the Minister, Deputy Foley, visited the region recently and acknowledged directly that the system was not serving children and families as it should. However, there is a national recruitment campaign. Since 2020, about 40 therapists have been recruited in Cavan and Monaghan, bringing the total to 117. The national children's disability network team, CDNT, recruitment campaign attracted over 500 applications. Appointments are actively being progressed and staffing has increased by 28% nationally.”
“The Deputy cannot just say that because his party lost the election, suddenly everything has gone south in terms of environmental and climate policy. It has not. One of the challenges is you need to work with people, not browbeat them, lecture them and hector them into climate change. That is one of the challenges. It is a concerning issue but we have made progress. Our population has grown dramatically. The Deputy should acknowledge that, too.”
“The Deputy should not be condemning himself so much. It is only 16 months that this Government has been in place. The idea that we are not getting to 50% because of the past 16 months is nonsense. The Deputy must know that. Policies take a lot of time to bed in and deliver. The last Government did a lot, including Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens. The Green Party does not have a monopoly on climate. What is the Deputy saying? Is it that what happened when he was in government was not sufficient? He cannot blame the last 16 months for where we are. We have made progress. The targets are significantly challenging. The Deputy knows that - he always knew it. His former leader always knew it as well, so let us have a bit of realism here.”
“I am not aware of the specifics of that case. It seems a fairly unusual one in terms of the interaction of a potential wind farm with radar. Normally, the aviation authority has a role in housing, for example, close to an airport, which I would be familiar with. It is difficult to understand how things got to the stage they got to. An Coimisiún Pleanála has made its decision but I am not sure it would have as wide an impact across the country as it has had in the specific circumstance the Deputy raised.”
“The Limerick surgical hub is expected to be operational in quarter 4 of this year. Medical assessment units are extending services. Opening hours have been extended from 8 a.m. until midnight in Ennis and Nenagh hospitals. Overall, significant progress is being made in the HSE Mid West region on both waiting lists and waiting times. Compared to December 2021, the April 2026 total waiting list in HSE Mid West has reduced by 12%. The average length of time that patients on lists have been waiting has also reduced from 15 months to 6.3 months in the same period. There are challenges but increased capacity will help. As we discussed earlier, the contract has been signed for the next 90-bed block.”
“I would be a very enthusiastic supporter of what the Deputy has articulated in respect of more facilities. Local authorities have a key role in the zoning of land and the designation of lands. We were fortunate in Cork city over the years that successive city councils and city CEOs saw the value of land for playing pitches. I have always contrasted that with the Dublin experience, which I find, frankly, poor in terms of the length of lease it gives clubs and the capacity of clubs to develop their facilities, and State agencies likewise. I will not go too far but the bottom line is we were fortunate in the sense that, outside of Dublin, many clubs had 100-year leases or own the land. I would be in favour of making sure that more councils look after clubs of all codes and community facilities.”
“They are an indispensable cog in the wheel of how schools operate. I accept what the Deputy is saying. The objective is to have this resolved before the commencement of the next school year. Hopefully, it will be resolved long before then.”
“I was almost wishing the leaving certificate upon us given the very tough, wet winter we had. I said that surely when the leaving certificate comes around we would get good weather. Lo and behold, we have scorching weather, which is unfortunate for the students involved. It seems to be the case every year that there is a burst of sunshine at this time. I hope it will create a good backdrop to what is a very significant exam for the students. We wish them well. The good news is that there are many routes to help them get to their desired qualifications and careers. On the school caretakers and secretaries, that matter is being dealt with by the labour relations machinery at the moment. I have been discussing it with the Minister, Deputy Chambers. I pay tribute to school secretaries and caretakers.”
“There are fundamental issues with the insourcing model as it evolved. We are talking about people working in tertiary public hospitals who are being paid already. There are issues of which we have to be very conscious in terms of making sure that we are not paying twice for the same procedures or services. There have to be clear lines of demarcation. We are always open to engaging with perspectives people may have on this, but certainly there was a significant hue and cry about this when the scale of it was revealed. It has caused concerns. Then the HSE investigated some aspects of it and some of what it came up with was not ideal at all or optimal in terms of how we should deploy public resources.”
“There is a challenge and a problem here in terms of the regulatory frameworks governing what is a new phenomenon of drones providing services like delivering coffee or whatever else to people in residential areas. I do not understand why people cannot just go to a café, socialise and so on or why people think a drone is necessary to deliver a cup of coffee or whatever. It is something I do not comprehend, and I do not think needs to happen. There is a big issue here. Residents are concerned about residential amenity in terms of noise and about potential privacy concerns. On the other hand, drone technology has probably been one of the fastest growing technologies, which we cannot ignore either. Companies are developing the technology for all sorts of applications. We want to see that develop, but we do need to protect our neighbourhoods.”
“Let us understand and acknowledge the challenges. Wind farms are objected to and are a source of huge issues across the length and breadth of the country. Solar farms are now becoming a significant issue that people are not happy with.”
“I outlined earlier in my comments to Deputy Bacik that the Government and Irish society have made significant progress. The target of 51% is very challenging, but we have made a hell of a lot of progress in onshore wind, which has been quite dramatic. In April, the third month in a row, onshore wind represented 50% of electricity generation here. Solar is really moving at pace now and, from all we can see, will continue to do so. It went from zero to replace coal as the third highest source of indigenous generation in less than a decade. I could go on. I mentioned the 1 million extra homes. It is important that we are all honest. Every day in the House - I am not referring to Deputy Whitmore because she is committed and consistent-----”
“The Tánaiste and I have met the Irish Thalidomide Association four times over the past eight months. All of the meetings were cordial and positive. We are anxious to get things moving. We have provided comprehensively and substantively in respect of issues relating to health needs for the entirety of the lives of people impacted by thalidomide and in terms of independent living and any supports that are required in that respect. There have been ongoing issues in terms of how we deal with the Contergan situation. There are other aspects that have been positively progressed. We are anxious, on the Government side, to progress this as speedily as possible. I can assure the Deputy of that.”
“In the first instance, the Government has sanctioned legislation to ensure RTÉ comes under the aegis of the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. That will give the Oireachtas a specific mechanism to hold RTÉ to account regarding the types of expenditure the Deputy has just described. It is for RTÉ to account for that. The Government does not run RTÉ. We allocate funding, principally for balanced public service broadcasting, because it is the national State broadcaster, but the Government does not in any shape or form defend any excessive or unnecessary expenditure of the type the Deputy outlined.”
“Private wires will allow for direct connection between generation and the customer where it is more efficient to do so than connecting to the national grid. Private wires will also provide an alternative connection mechanism from renewable projects to customers. As far as I am concerned, large-scale generation can be positive as well for SMEs. I will talk to the Minister about the aspects the Deputy feels are not covered the general scheme. That is the whole purpose of his engaging with the Minister about his legislative proposals. It is also the purpose of the work of the committee in its pre-legislative consideration process, which has been completed. Private wires will create options for renewable energy developers. The development of the regime has been supported by the renewable energy sector since the public consultation in 2023.”
“Its report was published at the end of April. The Department is now looking at the recommendations which, perhaps, the Deputy, and others made at that committee. It is also looking at and developing the expedited delivery plan, which will set out the key actions to take forward to swiftly operationalise the regime from a regulatory perspective. The Bill, once enacted, will give the CRU powers to create the necessary regulations to oversee private wire developments, including in respect of safety and technical standards and a licensing framework. Ultimately, we want to make sure that this can contribute to customers and to the broader story in the context of complementarity with the national grid. There are issues that have to be worked out in terms of the potential interaction between private wires and the national grid.”
“I believe the Minister has met the Deputy about it already. I have spoken to the Minister on a number of occasions putting the pressure on to get this Bill through because private wires will provide greater opportunities for electricity consumers and generators and will lead to increased competitiveness and sustainability. As the Deputy will be aware, the Government approved the general scheme last December. It is interesting that April was the third month in a row where more than 50% of our electricity was generated from renewables. The Deputy's point about renewables and dispatch down is significant. We are conscious of it, although battery storage is improving all the time and is increasing significantly across the country. The joint committee has undertaken pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the private wires Bill.”
“I thank the Deputy and commend him on the work he is doing on this issue. It is a particular focus for him. He identified it as a key priority for him, on his election to Dáil Éireann, and for inclusion in the programme for Government. The private wires Bill for which the Minister has received sanction from the Government is priority legislation. The intention is to publish a draft Bill in the coming months - I think prior to the summer recess - with a target that the Bill will complete its passage through the Oireachtas later this year. An detailed, expedited delivery plan will also be published. That will detail targeted, time-bound actions to swiftly operationalise the regulatory regime. The Deputy is about to publish his Bill. The Department and Minister will engage with him and examine it in detail.”
“The Deputy can be assured that we are focused, and the Minister is, in particular, on timely delivery of the next commitments, particularly the 90-bed block that we want delivered on time and within budget.”
“-----which has benefited from significant investment, but that is in a different area from Nenagh and Ennis, which is part of the mid-west provision of services. The most recent 90-bed block was delivered on time. Along with the investment, we need constant reform as to how we provide services. There has been a lot of investment in health services in the past five years, which needs to be acknowledged. There has to be a relentless focus on outcomes from that investment and quality of patient care. Things have changed. Clinicians are changing practices all the time and advancing technologies, mechanisms, methodologies and so on to improve efficiency all round.”
“The objective is to have the best, state-of-the-art services to cater for a population in the mid-west that is going to continue to grow,”
“We have seen that in terms of some of the hospital groups whereby the utilisation of other hospitals, apart from the tertiary centre, has been advantageous to patients, with access to outpatient clinics or endoscopy, or a variety of diagnostic facilities and so on. That complements the work that takes place in the acute hospitals or tertiary hospitals. The objective of the project board that the Minister will establish is to get the complete picture for the entirety of the mid-west. Deputies from Clare and Tipperary are very focused on that aspect, as well as on developing a new hospital. The good news is that a site has been secured. As we all, including the Deputy, know, if you are building anything, a school or anything else, securing a site is key and can help us to accelerate the deliberations in respect of it.”
“We need to acknowledge that. A lot of infrastructure is, by the way, but, understandably in the context of accountability, it is the ones that are not that get the headlines. We are confident that the next 90-bed block will also come in on budget and on time. The contract has already been awarded for that. That is crucial and critical. The Minister will shortly be establishing a project board to deal with health services not just in the context of a new hospital in Limerick but the broader health services for the mid-west. Ennis and Nenagh hospitals will need more services. One has to look at the entirety of the hospital campuses in the mid-west in order to get the optimal outcome. We have seen that in the north east.”