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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“This morning, we announced the DEIS plus scheme, which allocated further resources to the schools most in need and with huge challenges. It affects about 120 schools and also provides more home-school liaison. We want to make a reserve to make sure we improve services for everybody in the country. Yesterday’s allocation of about €250 million is probably the largest package across Europe. The fuel allowance is a good, targeted measure that helps about 470,000 families, which will help them with their home heating oil expenses. The general reduction in petrol and diesel prices will definitely help families across the length and breadth of the country. We also have the reduction in the NORA levy. The Deputy cannot just isolate one from the other; they will all help to some degree.”
“Yes, he would. Honesty is what we want here because the Government would then need to find €1 billion to do what the Deputy wants us to do. That means taking money from farmers. It means taking money from the retrofitting programme because we would not be able to do the retrofitting programme without it. The retrofitting programme helps people to reduce their costs over time and is a far more effective energy-efficient approach to the allocation of resources. About €173 million this year will come from that fund and go to farmers across the country. The Opposition will say, “Don’t do that. Find the money elsewhere.” We also have to try to invest in education, health, children and disability for the next budget. We want to maintain existing levels of public service but also increase them.”
“This is March and we have another winter to come. We do not quite know what is around the corner and what measures might be required from Government in response to potentially a further deterioration in the future. Hopefully this war ends very quickly; it should end very quickly. That is what we want but we do not know what might happen in respect of that. We also have to prepare for a budget and keep our resources in reserve. I know the Deputy is against the carbon tax; I think he would abolish it in total.”
“The Deputy’s assessment is not correct in the sense that he ignored the extension of the fuel allowance for four weeks, which will help about 470,000 people to deal with the rise in the price of home heating oil. There is no doubt that there is huge pressure on families and people across the country. The price of home heating oil has increased very significantly because of the war, not because of what the Government did. The price shock that is occurring because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as well as the bombing of gas and oil installations in Iran and in the Gulf states. That is the fundamental cause of the current crisis. It still has not reached the levels that we reached at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine when we also had an oil price and energy crisis. Government has to act.”
“To me, however, culture is the fundamental issue that underpins behaviour like this occurring on a regular basis. It is something that has to be worked on on a consistent, constant basis to change the culture of organisations. I will revert to the Deputy.”
“Fundamentally, in any organisation, it is about the culture. In all of the work that has been done within the Defence Forces, the one word that kept emerging in terms of all the analysis, inquiries and so on was "culture". There are numerous policies in respect of these issues but the biggest difficulty and challenge is around culture. Changes are occurring in the Defence Forces, which should be acknowledged given what has happened, and also within An Garda Síochána. Interestingly, there was a lot of resistance from those organisations to utilisation of the word "culture" and to highlighting the fact there is a problem with the culture. There was a lot of resistance at times to even articulating that in any documents pertaining to the Defence Forces. That has been my experience.”
“Given the gravity of what has been alleged and that it seems, from what the Deputy has said, that others have also suffered at the hands of this individual, promoting a person in that context would, in my view, represent an outlier in terms of how the public service more generally deals with situations like this when they arise. I will ask the Minister to get back to me and to the Deputy in respect of this issue.”
“I will ask the Minister for Health to apprise me of the background to this case and also, if necessary, to initiate a review into it. Without having the specific details of, or background to, the case, one would expect there to be norms and protocols within an organisation like the National Ambulance Service whereby when allegations of such a severe nature are made, certain actions would automatically follow. These matters are being investigated. It would seem to be highly unusual in the public service that someone would be promoted while such substantive and serious allegations remain to be investigated.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this very serious issue in the House. I do not have the full background to the case to hand. I have read some reports in the media in respect of it. Clearly, I do not want to prejudice anything that may be in train but it is very difficult to comprehend how somebody against whom these complaints and charges have been made could be promoted. I do not have the full background to the case but it is extremely difficult to comprehend. No woman should have to suffer such harassment or suffer, as in this case, sedation and rape. The Deputy is correct that there absolutely should be a zero-tolerance approach within the ambulance service to misogyny, sexual harassment and the undermining of women in any shape or form in their daily work.”
“We must engage proactively with local authorities to say we want particular cases dealt with and particular priorities set. That needs to be done in a proactive way as opposed to dealing with an issue when it becomes an emergency.”
“Certainly, as I said, this is an issue I am going to deal with personally, as Taoiseach, with the Minister, Deputy Foley, the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and others, including the Minister for Health. It needs an integrated response, without question. We certainly will provide the necessary funding but, again, we have to get the design and the structures right. In my view, there is funding available within housing in a lot of instances but it cannot be that we just pass it over to the local authority to deal with. It is not a sustainable or proper response to say it is somebody else's problem. There have been capacity issues within section 39 bodies in terms of dealing with this housing and residential issue. We need to engage with the different authorities and bodies responsible and get moving on it.”
“With any application for housing from someone with an intellectual disability, there is a continuum. Some will need some levels of support and others will need greater levels of support. It cannot be a siloed approach saying it is a local authority problem or challenge. It is not. It has to be one where the care aspects are integrated with the housing solution. That is where I want to take this. It will take a bit of reorganisation in terms of how Government operates, as well as local government, section 39 providers and everybody involved here. The priority has to be on those waiting. Over the last number of years, there has been a huge investment in decongregation, which has taken up lot of resources. We need to work through the prioritisation of those in need.”
“Many elderly parents are very distressed and anxious, understandably so, about what will happen to their loved ones if they pass from this life. There needs to be proper co-ordination between section 39 providers, local authorities, the State, the Government and the Departments of disability and health. The Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and the HSE met with the group last week. The Minister, Deputy Foley, also met with the group. What is happening at the moment is there is a siloed approach to understanding the overall housing needs of adults with intellectual disability. It is not just about what we might traditionally call residential places; there must be a much more holistic approach. In some instances, people are being sent to local authorities to apply for housing in the ordinary way. That is not good enough.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising a very important issue. I met with the Before We Die campaign well over a month ago in Cork and listened intently to what they had to say about their personal situations. Their personal situations could be amplified with many more. There are 1,389 active applications for residential services, with 281 assessed as priority 1. We are investing and there are investment plans in the current budget, with an extra 20% to create additional places in new residential developments and so forth. I have put it on the agenda of the next Cabinet subcommittee on disability because it involves more than just the allocation of funding, though we will have to allocate funding. How this has evolved is unacceptable. The focus is on emergency solutions all the time.”
“Sinn Féin's solution is billions, billions and more billions every month of the year. No matter what crisis arises, throw billions at it. That is its response. It has no substance as a party, absolutely none. Whatever issue arises, it just throws money at it. That is the answer to it. That is the incoherence of its response as a party - hopelessly incoherent, no substance to its policy, no clarity. There is an absence of any decision-making capacity, as demonstrated by the Deputy's party in Northern Ireland, and she controls it all. She has made that very clear. That is exactly what happens. She blames somebody else.”
“However, when it comes to the budget next October, it will have a budget alternative to ours, and it will include carbon tax revenue. It is so hypocritical about it. That is the damage that it would do. Carbon tax is essential to guarantee ring-fenced funding for the retrofitting of homes, the warmer homes initiative and the retrofitting of local authority housing, all of which will help working people to permanently reduce their bills into the future. This year alone, €173 million will be allocated out of that fund to farmers on environmental farming schemes under the ACRES programme, which is 60% funded by the Government.”
“Most people will also benefit from the reduction in diesel and petrol that Sinn Féin voted against and opposed, and people will benefit from the NORA levy also. In the broader area, of course, in the last budget, we increased way above inflation the social protection measures, pensions and the household benefits package - quite substantially. Deputy McDonald keeps talking about carbon tax. God knows, over the last number of years, it has been incredibly difficult to find out where Sinn Féin stands on carbon tax. Every year, when we do a budget, Sinn Féin does its alternative budget. What is in its alternative budget? All the revenue from carbon tax. So, when it suits Sinn Féin for performative and demonstrative purposes, such as this crisis, it suddenly wheels out its supposed opposition to the carbon tax.”
“No government in the world can compensate every single person in society as a result of that war. All of the advice is that you target the resources you are allocating to a crisis of this kind, and that they are temporary measures. It is also to keep in mind that things could get worse over the next number of months, and that we need to hold in reserve our resources, both for the budget for next year and for making sure we maintain investment in services like education and health, but that we do our best now to ease the pressure on people. Extending the fuel allowance by four weeks enables us to reduce the pressure on working families, and up to 470,000 families will benefit from that extension over four weeks of the fuel allowance.”
“That is the logical conclusion of their position. No attempt this morning is going to change that fact. We put forward measures last evening by resolution to reduce the cost of petrol and diesel, and Sinn Féin opposed it and voted against it. That was the wrong thing to do. It sums up their approach. In Northern Ireland, they cannot make up their minds. Two Sinn Féin Ministers are in charge of this area. There is an absolute absence of any decision-making, an absence of any clarity. They cannot make up their minds on how to allocate the money to help people in Northern Ireland. It is pathetic, absolutely pathetic, and they blame somebody else, of course, which they always do. The bottom line is that there is a war which is having enormous implications for energy supply. It is well documented.”
“Ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Mar a dúirt mé inné, tá an Rialtas ag déanamh gach aon iarracht cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine, go háirithe na daoine is boichte agus ar ioncam íseal sa tír seo. Sin a dhein muid inné leis an bpacáiste a d'fhoilsíomar. I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy in her assessment. The bottom line is that Sinn Féin voted against a reduction in diesel of 20 cent per litre last evening. Sinn Féin voted against a 15 cent reduction in petrol and a 3 cent per litre reduction in green diesel, and also voted against the NORA levy, or will, in terms of its commitment.”
“I want to see democratic oversight. It has to protect sensitive information. If we are honest, there is a big question mark over the capacity of the Oireachtas to do that. Most committees can be fairly loose with documents but that is the nature of modern democracy. Some of the forces and services can let information out as well. There is a review on the way about the committee's remit.”
“Again, I will speak to the Minister in respect of that. There was a commitment there to provide school places. I am sure that will be realised and fulfilled. Particularly in areas of high population growth, there is a need to have interim measures to make sure children get access to the places that they are entitled to and that they need. Deputy O'Hara raised Gaelscoil Riada. Admhaím go bhfuil deacrachtaí agus dúshláin an-mhór ann ó thaobh bhainistíocht na scoile. Níl an struchtúr oiriúnach agus tá an-chuid le déanamh. There is sewage and flooding and there are a lot of issues with the building. Again, I will talk to the Minister in terms of clarity around that particular project. Deputy Conway-Walsh raised the national security framework. This was the first Dáil where we have a committee covering security and national security.”
“The Minister will be responding to requests for special classes. The numbers are way ahead of last year because of the early date. It seems to have opened up a level of applications that was not anticipated. There is a lot of work needed and required to drill into that to make sure we have appropriate placements for children. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, will be doing everything they possibly can to secure places for all children. They have the resources to do that. Deputy O'Rourke raised the shortage of mainstream junior infant classes. I did not get the location.”
“The LDA is accelerating its work. Only yesterday it was announced that 550-odd houses will be provided on the Naas Road. Again, it is a mix of housing which will be affordable to people and involves cost rental also. However, the most important way to deal with housing overall is to get supply up. That means both public sector investment at unprecedented levels, which we are doing, but it also means substantial private sector investment to get to the levels of house building that are required to deal with population growth and the needs of the young people to be able to get houses they can afford. Deputy O'Callaghan raised school places. I do not have the answer to every specific request at every specific location in respect of special classes. The allocation to special education will be significantly up on last year.”
“There has been a lot of progress made on some fronts, such as dementia on a range of community-based supports that were not there five years ago that are there now. That said, however, the need is there. We will certainly see how we can progress that even further. Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the very high house prices in Dún Laoghaire in his constituency. I acknowledge that. It is a very significant issue. In an unprecedented way, we have provided a lot of State investment in housing, particularly in certain schemes not just in the first home scheme but in terms of the help-to-buy scheme, which has helped a lot of people to be able to buy homes, and cost rental. We need to do more. Shanganagh was the first major development by the Land Development Agency, LDA, which had a broad mix of housing from social to affordable.”
“I outlined earlier in the House the degree to which we have made a lot of progress in terms onshore in this country and the degree of electricity generation that is caused by renewables now. If the Deputy has an alternative, we are always open to alternatives and ideas. Certainly, we look forward to the Deputy submitting that to us. Deputy Quaide raised specialist multidisciplinary posts in respect of senior citizens. Again, we are in favour of providing multidisciplinary supports across the board. It is the most optimal way of providing healthcare at all levels, be it primary, community, or indeed, inpatient services. I will talk to the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health in relation to these issues.”
“There is enormous vulnerability to our energy security if anything was to happen to the interconnectors. We know that the Yantar and other parts of the Russian shadow fleet have traversed over those pipelines. Our own undersea divers had to go down with British undersea divers to check and make sure there was nothing untoward happening. These are very real threats. In other seas there has been disruption of pipelines. I am very worried about it. It is a significant vulnerability and hence the decision to proceed with the LNG floating infrastructure reserve. It would never in itself have a sufficiency in terms of meeting the wider economic needs. It is not going to in any way stop us from driving forward with the renewable agenda.”
“We need to work with local authorities, TII, the NTA and others to ensure comprehensive accessibility for people with disabilities along with other measures we are contemplating, particularly the replacement of the existing mobility transport schemes in a way that will benefit people and make them more flexible and accessible as grant schemes for people who want to adjust their cars. Maybe it will not be at the same level as the older scheme, but there will be a tiered approach. I hope we will be in a position to launch it next year. We will bring proposals to the Government shortly on it and then get it worked up. Deputy Whitmore did not outline, or even whisper, what the alternative is to the LNG floating reserve infrastructure we have decided to provide. The advice is very strong.”
“We are very conscious of the pressures many people are under. I hope the package will help to alleviate some of those pressures for people across the board. Deputy Dolan raised accessibility and he referenced Athenry, Gort, Tuam and Loughrea. I agree 100%. I have set up a disability unit within the Department to make sure every single Department is seized of the importance of disability services and in particular the implementation of the human rights-based disabled persons strategy, which we launched last year. We had a very good meeting with many of the groups on the action plan and its implementation.”
“Deputy Ó Murchú raised a specific case in highlighting the role of community nurses in the context of rising fuel prices. Community nurses have an essential role in community-based healthcare and providing services to people on the ground. We are three weeks into this war and we are continuing to keep everything under review, in particular the cost issues for people. We have announced a package of measures which is probably larger than most other packages of measures across Europe but it is very much targeted and temporary. We will keep monitoring the situation to see how this unfolds. We need to keep resources in reserve for any potential worsening of this situation. We need to keep an eye on impacts on the economy. It is now March and we have some distance to go to the end of the year, so we are being cautious and retaining flexibility.”
“The entire area of monitoring subsea cables with others and monitoring gas infrastructure or indeed other interconnectors – we will shortly have one with France which will be live next year – is very critical for our economy. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Lawless, about it, as well as other Ministers. I have alerted them to the potential of this centre. We will do some more work on that. Part of the role of An Taoiseach is to co-ordinate and drive certain initiatives. I commend the Deputy for visiting it and raising the issue. It is one I intend to pursue with colleagues to see how we can advance the investment in that centre. The buildings and so on are fairly rudimentary, if I may say so. As the Deputy said, there is huge potential there and a cross-government approach is required to support it.”
“I thank all the Deputies who raised questions. Deputy Cathal Crowe raised the CRIS centre in University of Limerick, which I have visited. I saw at first hand the excellent technology in respect of underwater remotely controlled drones which can observe critical undersea infrastructure, such as subsea cables, gas interconnectors and eventually offshore windmills. Such key infrastructure is vital to our economy and society. When I came away, I said that we need to build on this. I think we need a national centre that can develop this technology. We can see all over the world how advanced drone technology has become and how effective it is in many different manifestations and uses.”
“It supported me as Taoiseach with nine meetings of the European Council, ten meetings of the coalition of the willing on Ukraine and a significant programme of inward and outward visits, including the AI summit in February, the EU-Africa summit in Angola in November and the visit of President Zelenskyy in December 2025. The strategy sets out how the Department will progress work in all the areas I have mentioned, including through the Cabinet committee structure and its related senior officials' groups. The Department's annual reports over the period from 2025 to 2028 provide a mechanism to report progress made on the policy priorities outlined in the statement of strategy. The statement of strategy is published as Gaeilge agus as Béarla.”
“The policy priorities outlined in the statement of strategy, which align with the commitments contained in the programme for Government, include housing; infrastructure; disability; children and education; economy, trade and competitiveness; climate action, environment and energy; health; justice, migration and social affairs; EU and international affairs; Northern Ireland; national security; and water quality. In 2025, the Department provided the secretariat for 46 Government meetings, which dealt with 1,233 memos to the Government.”
“The core responsibilities and key activities of the Department encompass executive leadership and Government co-ordination; legislative, parliamentary and constitutional duties; policy coherence and whole-of-government perspective; State protocol and commemorations; public communications and information, emergency management and civic engagement; and Civil Service and public service leadership and renewal. Supporting implementation of the programme for Government is at the core of the Department's mission.”
“The Department's mission is to support the Taoiseach and the Government, including in the implementation of the programme for Government, through principled leadership and joined-up governance; by co-ordinating Government activity to ensure effective, inclusive and timely decision-making; by providing impartial, high-quality policy advice in the national interest; by upholding democratic integrity, Civil Service values and public trust at the centre of government; and by promoting a strategic, sustainable and long-term perspective that safeguards Ireland’s future prosperity, cohesion and resilience.”
“I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 23, inclusive, together. The Department of the Taoiseach's statement of strategy 2025-28 was approved by the Government on 7 October 2025 and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 10 December 2025. The statement of strategy outlines the Department’s vision, mission, values, core responsibilities, key activities and policy priorities over the period from 2025 to 2028.”
“I know, but this is a different set of questions. In response to Deputy Conway-Walsh, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of this issue. I will talk to the Minister and come back to her. There have been challenges all around. Because of the war in Ukraine, there are lots of issues and public services that have come under pressure.”
“No, not at all. In response to Deputy O'Hara, that is a matter for the Minister for education. There are plenty of routes to try to source an answer to that question. I will reference that the Deputy raised it, but it is not appropriate to raise it in the context of the coalition of the willing.”
“No one case is simple. There is a complexity and history to a lot of these issues that defies simplistic sloganeering. I dealt with the questions about the triple lock and UN mandate. I dealt with Deputy Whitmore's question. That is our take on it and we will examine it. In response to Deputy O'Hara's question about the ETB-----”
“It is another regime that has a certain glorified narrative around it here but it has been quite a repressive regime as well and it has oppressed its people for far too long. It needs to get with it in the modern era and engage in a sensible dialogue to try to get a resolution. It does not need any external interventions. I have been to Cuba. When I was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, I was one of two or three European ministers in the 2007 to 2010 period who visited Cuba in the hope of getting a more liberal view of things, but, even then, it did not release the political prisons that we had sought the release of. President Castro and his brother, who was his successor, ruled with an iron fist. That was wrong and the consequences for its citizens have been fairly dire. Hence many left and went to the United States or elsewhere.”
“Deputies Boyd Barrett, Murphy and others will never acknowledge that point. President Zelenskyy executed nobody before Ukraine was invaded. I believe in dialogue. I believe in the international rules-based order and a UN mandate, although the UN is paralysed. The reason we are doing the triple lock is the UN Security Council is paralysed. It is going to be very hard to get a peacekeeping mission going and because of the Security Council, UNIFIL will end at the end of this year. The opportunities for Irish peacekeepers, which is something we have been doing uninterrupted since 1958, is very much in the balance, but no one seems to care about that on the Opposition side in terms of our future role in peacekeeping. Cuba should be resolved by dialogue.”
“Yes, I would argue that Iran is much more repressive than Saudi Arabia. We do not have a precise number, but thousands of their citizens who went on the street to protest were mowed down. I am not defending any other regime but this is a particularly-----”
“In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I made it clear in my speech at the White House about Ireland's adherence to UN nations, the need for a UN mandate and its adherence to the international rules-based order. I articulated that strongly, as I did about the need for the war to end and for a peaceful resolution. We are dealing with a very repressive regime in Iran that has been conducting a surrogate war for years on an ongoing basis against many countries. In the Middle East, it is particularly-----”
“That is why there has been a general principle at European level that we should not damage ourselves disproportionately, particularly given that it is an industry that is under attack anyway from broader issues around how the global economy operates today in terms of some countries giving more protections, subsidies and so on. However, I am concerned about the report because that was never on the agenda. The report states that it supplies to intermediaries who are then supplying it on to Russia to be used for armaments. That is a concern, and we will examine it to try to get the background to it. It is not just about Ireland. It has a relevance to other EU member states in terms of its production.”
“There are a lot of environmental concerns around the shadow fleet. Many of them are potential maritime disasters if there were leakages of oil and so on, which would have devastating impacts on the marine environment. They have been disrupted by a number of EU member states. They have been boarded and so on. The idea was to try to disrupt the modus operandi of the shadow fleet and to make it less efficient in terms of its service to Russia during these times. Deputies Ó Cearúil and Whitmore raised Aughinish Alumina. It is a very significant employer in the mid-west and it supports hundreds of jobs directly and indirectly. It also has a connection to the supply chain within Europe in terms of steel and its products.”
“We have to build up. We discussed this with the United Kingdom Government the week before last when we met with Keir Starmer and the ministers. It is a big concern for them. We want to co-operate more with them on knowledge around technology and how best we can resist cyber-attacks. Collaboration is the name of the game in countering cybersecurity attacks, which is about learning from the experiences of others that have had them and about trying to pool our best brains to counter such attacks into the future. With regard to the shadow fleet, legislation is being passed that will enable Naval Service personnel to board them or our naval vessels to intercept them. They will also be able to put queries to the operators of these ships regarding their legality and a whole range of other issues.”
“We want more sanctions and there could be challenges down the line if the global crisis continues. Deputy Byrne raised the issue of cybersecurity. It is a huge issue, and many private sector organisations are under fairly regular attack. A lot of them are occurring from within Russia. There could be third country backers that back certain hackers or people involved in cyberwarfare, or there can be criminal entities, but that are known to the authorities in Russia. The Conti group is believed to have caused the attack on our health services during Covid-19. It is inconceivable that it would be allowed operate with the freedom that it does in Russia without some tacit acknowledgement or support from the administration or the government there. The Deputy also referenced the Courts Service. It is a very significant source of concern for us.”
“-----but it is reflected in its questions. When I talk about the coalition of the willing, it is about Ukraine. All Sinn Féin can offer is one question on that and another on the ETB in Athlone, which has nothing at all to do with it. It just suggests that as far as Sinn Féin is concerned, Ukraine really does not matter and that has been its position----”
“Hungary has a view. Orbán has a view. Sinn Féin has a view. It is basically saying that Ukraine should surrender because if the Ukrainians do not get that budgetary package and a package to support them defend themselves, it is surrender. There is no other option for Ukraine-----”