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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“Some of that manifested in the budget decisions we took and we will be dealing with the overall framework, which is important.”
“Energy efficiency is always something that should be focused on. It should not be just dismissed as the Deputy potentially did there. I recall what supermarkets did during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the terrible crisis we had at the time. They put doors on their fridges, a simple thing that saved massive amounts of energy and was money well spent. Prior to the crisis, it was whatever. What I mean by that is we do have to continue to fund retrofitting and energy efficiency. On the CRU, the regulatory model is what we are examining right now. That is not a simple thing. It does need to be changed and the consumer is bearing the brunt of a lot of the investment. Again, it is the CRU, and the Minister has established an energy affordability task force. It has already published its first report.”
“I certainly will. It is unacceptable. There is no call for broken windows. We have minor works grants and various schemes that can deal with issues of maintenance. In particular, if glass is broken or whatever, you fix the window, for God's sake. I will talk to the Minister and ask her to engage with the Minister for Defence, although it would seem to me that it is primarily an education matter on the capital side. I will certainly follow that up.”
“The Government did not withdraw anything. There is a need for proper debate on these matters. Everything gets weaponised and simplified and to hell with the consequences or to heal with the truth behind the issue and so on. I refer to the Irish Pharmacy Union, IPU, statement of last week. This is a bit more complex now than has been articulated by the Deputy's good self and others in the past week up to now. The Minister has engaged with the representative bodies and there will be further discussions but nothing has been withdrawn by the Government. Some pharmacies provided this free for a long time. Some charged minor amounts and others charged the State. Those who charged the State apparently did it under a different heading. All that needs to be worked out. It is not as simple as the Deputy presents it.”
“I say to Deputy Collins that we will look at all options. The most immediate one I am concerned about is that we need a framework of response in order to bring about a financially sustainable future for Irish fishers. That is important. We want to work with the industry to do that.”
“I put it to the Deputy that what I am proposing is far more realistic in terms of an immediate or timely response to the predicament and the dire situation Irish fishers find themselves in, primarily, let us be honest, because of scientific advice. When the stock is-----”
“Approximately €102 million is involved, and that does not take account, as the Deputy said, of the impacts on the value chain in the seafood sector for fish processes and ancillary services. That is also an issue of significant concern. The Hague preferences would have accounted for somewhere between €13 million and €18 million of that €102 million, so it is a much bigger issue, notwithstanding the unacceptable nature of the decision of other member states not to facilitate the granting of the Hague preferences. We will work now with the industry with a view to designing a package and a framework to create a sustainable future for Irish fishing.”
“The Minister, Deputy Heydon, was there with the Minister of State at the time. I met with all the major fishing organisations last week or the week before last. What we have to do now is develop our approach. Today, the Government took a decision to establish a task force with the industry to come back to us in the first quarter of next year in terms of how we, nationally, can support our fishers and create a sustainable pathway over the next number of years. We intend to re-engage regarding our limitations under existing state aid rules. Given the existential nature of this hit to the Irish fishing industry, we will have to respond in a strong way in terms of financially supporting our fishers over the next number of years.”
“These are devastating losses for our fishing community, with consequential issues for seafood sector, for processing downstream and for coastal communities that are dependent on jobs arising from that. The issue of unsustainable fishing of key pelagic stock such as mackerel by certain coastal states outside the European Union has been raised by Ireland repeatedly. We have, through the AGRIFISH Council, called for urgent European action to save the north-east Atlantic pelagic stocks. Again, Europe needs to negotiate far more strongly in terms of sending a clear message that actions that threaten the sustainability of our shared stocks are not acceptable to the European Union. There needs to be a concerted response. The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, travelled to all the capitals and worked extremely hard.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. I agree with him that what happened in Brussels last week was absolutely unacceptable in terms of the pulling back of the Hague preferences. The situation is far more grave than that, however. In terms of the overall issue, it was on scientific advice that the Council based its decisions. The Deputy is familiar with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, report, in which the scientific advice was, in essence, for a reduction of 70% in the total allowable catch for mackerel - that is existential for the pelagic fleet - a 41% reduction in respect of blue whiting and a 22% reduction in respect of boarfish.”
“-----on the back of a very big increase last year. We are not going the route of short-term, once-off payments. Such payments are not fiscally sustainable in terms of the €3 billion and more we allocated last year.”
“Deputy Calleary is working through the detail because is not simple. He is going to work through it and will have proposals in the first half of next year. This year, we brought in the highest ever increase to the child support payment, namely €16 per week for children over 12, up to €78 now-----”
“I disagree with the Deputy. This is a priority for me and for the Government. Just because she stands up and says it is not does not mean it is not. It is, but we need permanent change and permanent improvements, not just once-off stuff every year. That will not cut it either and-----”
“He is leading the strategic focus network on the cost of disability, working closely with disabled people and their advocates to shape how this payment will be designed and delivered. Several meetings have already taken place. The intention is to bring a proposal to Government in the first half of next year. The bottom line is that we want to embed a permanent change in our payments systems and across all Government Departments. Once-off payments are no substitute for that. The once-off payments were introduced to deal with emergency situations arising out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are not fiscally sustainable in the long term.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, is doing phenomenal work in special education along with the Minister, Deputy Naughton, as he did with the previous Minister, Deputy McEntee. We are very focused on establishing that programme in the early months of the new year before expanding it to all special schools in the next school year, during the period from September to January. We will then expand it further. We will continue to look at ways to improve the quality of education for children with special needs and how to ensure the right placements on time with the right therapeutic supports. We are also continuing to recruit for CDNTs and so forth. The Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, is working on the issue of the cost of disability.”
“I established a disability unit in my Department to drive change across Government in respect of disability. We also have a Cabinet committee on disability, which I chair. There was a particular focus on the issue in the budget. At today's Cabinet meeting, we produced a budget spotlight on the measures taken in respect of disability. These include a 20% increase in services, the largest increase in disability services for quite some time. We need more, and we need to do more. The special education budget is now over €3 billion. That has to manifest itself in additional classes, teachers, special needs assistants and therapies in our schools and it is doing so. Very quickly after coming into government, we were in a position to roll out the school therapy programme.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. We are listening to people with disabilities. Last Monday, we had a very significant meeting with disabled persons' organisations in the context of the implementation of the national strategy for disabled persons and the action plan that underpins it. There were a number of Ministers present, and I chaired the meeting. Each Minister outlined his or her programmes in respect of the action plan, following on from the publication of the strategy some months ago. The whole purpose was co-design and to listen to and engage with representatives of various pillars of disability organisations in the country. There will be further meetings, which will be more thematic and which will relate to specific areas.”
“If we took the view at the start of every capital programme that we just do not have enough capital, very little would have been built in the country.”
“Unprecedented levels of capital investment are being allocated. The Deputy knows that very often there is a parallel between the speed of acquisition of sites, speed of delivery, design and planning. There are a load of variables before we get to the drawdown of substantial capital in relation to a number of projects. The enabling works are happening in terms of the second site. There is an acknowledgement that there are capacity limits to the existing site in UHL. The acquisition of a site is extremely important. At that point, it will be necessary to incrementally build up and then free up and decant services from the main hospital site. Equally, there is no reason, given population growth and everything else, why we should not be incrementally reconfiguring and moving to a model 3 in the wider mid-west region.”
“In terms of option C, which is model 3 reconfiguration across the mid-west, the Government has agreed to develop a model 3 hospital in the HSE mid-west that will provide a second emergency department for the region. All three options will be pursued by the Minister. The Deputy has experience as a former Minister and he knows the important decision is the one that has been taken. A lot does depend on implementation and progression. The acquisition of a site will be very important. The speed of consideration in terms of option C will also be very important. The Minister will develop a strategic plan for option C for the commencement of reconfiguration. I do think it is possible.”
“In that period, about 420 additional beds will be delivered across the mid-west region, including 48 additional beds. The Deputy has the details of that in Ennis, St. John's and so on, and for Nenagh. There are additional needs. In the context of options A, B and C in the HIQA report, the Minister brought to the Government this morning a proposal to progress all three, first in terms of additional capacity in the existing site. It is interesting that the average number of people waiting on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick has almost halved in the weeks since the new 96-bed block opened compared to the weeks prior to it. Enabling works are under way, as the Deputy knows, for a second 96-bed block at UHL. The Minister is mandating the HSE to acquire a site as close as possible to the existing site.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is very serious. The Deputy rightly referred to the shocking deaths of Niamh McNally, Leona Cusack, Aoife Johnston, and Eve Cleary. From that, there is no question that the mid-west needs additional investment but also reform. The reform dimension started two years or more ago now and has had impact, but the investment also has had impact. The level of increase in investment over the last five years in the mid-west is quite substantial, which gives prospects for significant investment in the next five years and even beyond that. Investment in the hospitals in the region went from about €370 million to €689 million. The UHL budget has gone from €265 million to €507 million, and then on the current side there are additional doctors, nurses, allied healthcare professionals and so forth.”
“-----with the working family payments and so on is the proper way to proceed. We also have to change the regulatory framework. That is not simple work. It is under way, though, and will ultimately help us to deal with the issue. The bottom line is that €18 billion is an enormous sum of money. The Deputy has not given any rational explanation as to how she thinks it should be------”
“-----we did allocate up to €3.3 billion in energy credits. The bottom line is that universal energy credits on an ongoing basis are simply not fiscally sustainable. The resources we have must be targeted, particularly to low-income families, which is what we have done. The Deputy wants everybody, irrespective of income-----”
“The affordability task force has to look at the more fundamental issue of the regulatory framework that governs energy prices in this country. That is a key objective of it, allied with European initiatives that will be required in terms of how energy is priced in the European market.”
“An extra €140 will now be available for over 450,000 recipients between September and April. The €400 income tax disregard for households involved in energy microgeneration has been extended. There are also the budget measures more generally. Retrofitting has grown significantly over the past number of years and is making a real difference to many houses. A deep retrofit can save over €1,100. Approximately 228,000 upgrades have happened now in terms of homeowners. Some €1.5 billion has been allocated for that. This year alone, another 64,500 home energy upgrades will happen, in addition to 14,300 local authority upgrades. We are progressing significant change in energy consumption within our households, more generally.”
“In many respects, this is a decisive moment in respect of the energy grid. I acknowledge fully and understand the pressure people are under in respect of energy bills. Part of this announcement is the work of the national energy affordability task force, which was established by the Minister and which has already published its first report. Its task is to identify measures that will reduce electricity prices in the short term and permanently. Some of its measures were delivered under budget 2026. These include the decision to extend the reduction in VAT on electricity from 13% to 9% and significant work on the fuel allowance. We included those on the working family payment. An extra 50,000 people will be paid the fuel allowance in March and that will be backdated to January. Of course, we increased the fuel allowance.”
“I take this opportunity to send a very clear message from the Dáil, and as Head of Government, that our Jewish neighbours are an important and very valued part of our society and that there can be no place for antisemitism or antisemitic rhetoric in our State. In respect of the issues Deputy McDonald raised, first, price review 6, which will facilitate investment of up to €18 billion in our energy grid, is essential and will copper-fasten and benefit every job and every potential future job in the country and will underpin the building of 300,000 houses and their connection to the grid and the electrification of the public transport system. It is a major decision by the Government. The Government has allocated €3.5 billion in equity to help to leverage and underpin the enormous investment that will occur from this.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Before I begin to respond, I want to take a moment as well to express my sympathy to and solidarity with the Australian people and with our Jewish community here in Ireland as they come to terms with the horror and the grief of the mass shooting event at Bondi Beach on Sunday. Fifteen people, including a ten-year-old child and a Holocaust survivor, were cruelly murdered and more than 40 others injured for no other reason than their Jewish faith and identity as they gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. I am acutely conscious of the feelings of vulnerability and isolation that an event like this can cause among our own small Jewish community.”
“We need to accelerate the protection of people, households and businesses in that respect. On the N25, we need to get the bypasses along that road. That is a section of the road that definitely needs improvement. I thank the Ceann Comhairle.”
“The Government is absolutely committed to it. On Deputy Lawless's question, there is a huge increase in apprenticeships. We are recruiting people back. We are anxious for people to come back into the country, and people are coming back into the country. The construction industry is confident enough in terms of the numbers for getting the housing done, for example, and the huge retrofit programme that is going on as well. I will talk and engage with the Minister in respect of Deputy Conway-Walsh's query on the R312. Regarding Deputy Heneghan's question, I have discussed that in terms of Clontarf and flood relief generally. It will be part of critical infrastructure, absolutely. I see it as critical infrastructure because it is a big threat to us. The storms are worse and they are more severe.”
“The Deputy has a great capacity. He is brilliant at it, actually. From a political agitation perspective, the Deputy has a great capacity to turn what others would see as success into defeat. For the Deputy in opposition to say that we are not releasing-----”
“That brings me to Deputy Séamus McGrath's point. Yes, I have heard similar reports in terms of reliability. Originally, a year and a half ago, the shortage of drivers was blamed, but we definitely need to improve reliability. There had been very good stuff happening in public transport growth and so on. I will talk to Deputy McCormack again. The Deputy is absolutely correct that America, China and others are way ahead of us in some of this in the digital space. We need to catch up fairly quickly. I will look at the 5G stand-alone issue. Deputy Tóibín mentioned the NDP. The Navan rail line is in the NDP review-----”
“That is okay. It is a word that is not uncommon. Anyway, I have had my issues with BusConnects down through the years. There have been issues for habitual users of bus services who feel the changing of services or the reorientation of scheduling and so on has eroded what they would have had prior to it. Then we had all the issues around what were, in my view, over-the-top initial plans, which then got rolled back. This seems to have been a pattern throughout the BusConnects journey and I think lessons could be learned from that. A lot of heat built up that perhaps was not necessary in the first place because a lot of stuff that was proposed was then taken away. We will engage with the National Transport Authority, NTA, in terms of what is happening. It has made a lot of progress now on BusConnects. We need a good bus transport system.”
“We are very dependent on the importation of fossil fuels through the interconnectors. There are real issues here that we need to be clear-eyed about. We can then take decisions once everybody realises that there are pluses and minuses in all of this. Deputy Paul Murphy raised BusConnects, which he said was a "disaster"-----”
“The Department is also working on rural guidelines for housing and one-off housing. There is a lot of work in that Department but I accept that we do need to bring this to a conclusion. At some stage, we need some collective debate on energy. We are all dealing with individual cases of objections to solar, objections to gas generation, objections to wind onshore, and objections to wind offshore potentially. We desperately need the offshore wind. This is something we have got to progress through planning. I am hoping we can get wind farms built, certainly through 2030 to 2031. If we do not, then we are in trouble from an energy perspective. As a collective - when I say "collective", I mean the entire Oireachtas - we have to try to stand back and say that there are huge challenges. We discussed security earlier.”
“I do no know where we are on it in terms of the national development plan but there is no question that Galway city is facing enormous congestion, including all the areas feeding into Galway city. It is a real problem. Public transport, including rail, does give us an option, but not the whole option. We have to get the ring road done. Equally, though, the rail infrastructure is critical. I will talk to the Minister for Transport, Darragh O'Brien, about that. Deputy O'Rourke raised the issue of the updated wind farm guidelines. The Deputy is correct that they have been a long time coming and technology has changed in the intervening period. I have asked the Minister, James Browne, to accelerate the work on the guidelines. The unit in his Department is also working on planning exemptions. There is a lot of work there.”
“If any projects are of such imperative, these are. We do know that when these projects happen, they are effective in protecting against flooding. Towns that had historical flooding events have stopped them because of good infrastructure being put in. These projects invite a lot of objections. We had it in Cork city and it went the whole way to the top courts. It is only now that work is under way and all of that. There was flooding in Cork city this week. It was there because of the tidal levels, but one could argue that if you had the protections in, then businesses and people would have been protected and people could have gone in and out of town. I am very conscious of that. With regard to Deputy Dolan's question, I will come back to the Minister. It was a good point.”
“The Macroom bypass has been extremely effective but there is the problem that you go along a great road into Ballincollig if you are coming from the Kerry side but then you are suddenly into what, as the Deputy was saying to me the other day, is like a parking lot for the next 20 to 40 minutes. It is a very good point that we should encourage Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and others to keep thinking of the next stage and to have the planning ready and preparatory work done. I will work on that particular stretch the Deputy has referenced. Deputy Ó Murchú raised the flood damage, CFRAM and the five projects in Louth. Deputy Barry Heneghan had a similar point. In general, flood protection schemes take a long time. Some of that is due to stakeholder engagement and public engagement, and there can be objections and so on.”
“It is just an observation. I will start with Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, who made a very good point. Hopefully, with this national development plan and the allocation of ten years, we will avoid this stop-start where we get a project from A to B but C is not provided for at all. We had that over the last two decades, I suppose. I recall how the Cork-Limerick road had planning in an earlier era and then that was all shelved after the financial crash and so on. If they had kept the planning going, they would have been in a much better position now to actually start. I do accept that, and particularly on the N22.”
“In the period ahead, the Cabinet committee will, therefore, oversee both the investments and reforms required to ensure that infrastructure is delivered as efficiently and quickly as possible.”
“The Government, private sector and communities must align behind delivery. The plan is underscored by the largest capital investment in the history of the State, with over €275 billion planned over the coming ten years. Over recent weeks, Departments have published their ambitious sectoral investment plans for the next five years. Areas such as energy, transport and water will see a significant scale-up in funding and delivery, all of which will support us to address our infrastructure deficit and scale up housing. There will also be robust oversight of the Government’s performance in achieving these actions with regular reports on progress to the Cabinet committee on infrastructure.”
“Actions include legislative reforms to balance individual rights and public good, simplify regulation and consenting systems, cut administrative burden and red tape and build public acceptance and a delivery culture. The reforms align with broader housing, climate and competitiveness goals. These will be achieved by streamlining approvals to allow concurrent processing, introducing statutory timelines for major project decisions, rationalising delivery guidance to reduce duplication and complexity, enhancing procurement practices through clearer project pipelines, and fostering a delivery-focused culture that balances safeguards with urgency. We are at a critical juncture. We have a strong economy and growing population, but our infrastructure delivery is too slow. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform this.”
“I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 28, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure last met on 3 November and will meet again early in the new year. The Cabinet committee works to drive infrastructure delivery and the implementation of the revised national development plan. As Members know, last week, we brought to Government the essence of that plan. The reform of the delivery of critical, growth-enhancing infrastructure is a key commitment in the programme for Government. Last week marked a major milestone on this agenda with the publication of the accelerating infrastructure report and action plan. This plan sets out 30 high-impact and time-bound reforms to speed and scale up delivery of homes, roads, public transport, wastewater plants and energy infrastructure.”
“We should have a debate on the Kenova report in this House in the new year. It reveals very sordid activity by state actors but also by paramilitaries, including the Provisional IRA. The Kenova report does not pull its punches in saying it was a threat to its own community or attacked its own community. What went on is quite unbelievable. The Denton report stated that 120 people were murdered by a network of loyalist paramilitaries and RUC and UDR personnel, including those killed in the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. It is a very sordid story and both the Kenova and Denton reports cover it. I pay tribute to Jon Boutcher, who is now the head of the PSNI, for his leadership on Kenova, and also to Iain Livingstone. They withstood a lot of pressure. We will have two comprehensive reports, if we can get the latter one published.”
“It will also be about taking an intelligent approach in terms of what we procure. The nature of modern warfare or security threats has changed radically. We are all witnessing the drone technology change, as well as the cybersecurity. What can we do undersea? How do we protect cables? How do we protect gas connectors? It is a whole-of-society security approach that is required here. It is not the traditional, conventional approach to defence and security. We need to consider and explore that point more, perhaps. On the Dublin-Monaghan bombing, Deputy Boyd-Barrett is correct insofar as the summary of the Denton report was produced yesterday. It is regrettable that we do not have the full Denton report. I think there was some legal action taken to try to prevent it being published in full. The Kenova report has been published.”
“It is a very strong centre and has grown in capacity very significantly in the past five years. I remember when we started it. It has developed a really strong capacity under Richard Browne. Credit needs to be given in respect of that. I make the point to Deputy Ó Murchú that there is not a failure in funding, frankly, and finance will not be an issue here. What is an issue is the procurement timelines, both within the European defence industry and more generally. We are working to see if we can accelerate procurement. We are doing that with the radar. That is why we took a joint country approach to procurement - to fast track it. In other words, we use the experience and expertise of countries that have experience of procuring the radar we are now seeking. Everyone will be about how fast we can procure.”
“Through the Chair, we need to acknowledge that and the very effective work of An Garda Síochána and our Defence Forces. There is a lot of noise which suits other interests to portray Ireland in a certain light. The Deputy should be wary of that, too. Deputy Lawless raised the issue of cybersecurity. Cyber threats and attacks have increased significantly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some have been by criminal elements, some have been by professionals. There are also third party state actors in respect of cybersecurity threats. It is a very serious issue for both public utilities and private sector companies. It is costing a lot of funding to deal with that. We have brought the National Cyber Security Centre under the Department of justice.”
“I was just about to make the point in terms of the cybersecurity attacks. Sorry, we will protect those who are coming into this country. There is no question. Do not always be so fast to denigrate ourselves. Do not listen to all the noise out there. What happened during President Zelenskyy's visit was a good security operation by our Defence Forces and by an Garda-----”
“Once again, it is a matter for those on the ground and in the theatre to decide the best and most appropriate response at the time. I have dealt with some of Deputy Tóibín's questions. The national security council has been established. There is a clear structure emanating from that in terms of awareness, being briefed and so forth. I was briefed on this incident. I sought a briefing immediately on it and I received it. Obviously, it is something that will be discussed at the national security council later. In terms of Deputy Lawless-----”