As we head into the weekend of Imbolc and the start of spring, St. Brigid taught us many great things. She might have been connected with the birch but in Kildare she gave us our county name - Cill Dara being "the church of the oak" - where she built her first male and female monastery. She was ahead of her time. As the patron saint of milkmaids and brewers, she had a huge connection to all things agricultural and wo…
TDs / Martin Heydon
Martin Heydon
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
128,151
words spoken in the chamber
127,978 as a minister, 173 as a TD
404
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
Members of the Government answer parliamentary questions rather than ask them, so this page lists none of theirs.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 530 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 7 |
| March 2025 | 8 |
| April 2025 | 38 |
| May 2025 | 41 |
| June 2025 | 2 |
| July 2025 | 28 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 2 |
| October 2025 | 59 |
| November 2025 | 53 |
| December 2025 | 13 |
| January 2026 | 61 |
| February 2026 | 31 |
| March 2026 | 39 |
| April 2026 | 15 |
| May 2026 | 44 |
| June 2026 | 1 |
| July 2026 | 42 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 1 |
| October 2026 | 45 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 425 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Kildare South 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine 23 January 2025 to now
I thank the Deputy. We will not let St. Brigid completely dominate today but while the people of Louth are proud that she was born in Faughart, I note she moved to Kildare pretty quickly and spent most of her life there. You cannot choose where you are born but you choose where you live.
The targeted agriculture modernisation scheme, TAMS 3, which is EU cofunded, provides grants to farmers to build and-or improve a …
I will make a last reference to St. Brigid. I was jesting earlier. Kildare and Louth will both enjoy our public holiday next week, the third since it was established. I fought hard in government for the public holiday for St. Brigid. It makes great sense in many ways. With Councillor John Reilly and the community in Faughart and the broader area, we all share in the legacy of Brigid. There is a phenomenal opportunity…
Maybe it is down to lack of representation. I do not know.
Absolutely. This is all about balance and giving farmers opportunities to offset costs. It is open to farmers, as landowners, to pursue opportunities to derive or manage income from renewables. That is where rooftop solar has been important. Under TAMS, it is only to offset high energy bills but if farmers put it on their rooftops through a normal system whereby they can sell it back to the grid and make an income fr…
The control of all animal disease is an ongoing challenge for Irish farmers and my Department. I am acutely aware of the emotional and financial impacts that an outbreak of any disease can have on farmers and their families across rural Ireland. My Department provides a range of financial supports for farmers affected by certain animal disease outbreaks. Section 31(2) of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, as ame…
I absolutely empathise and understand. I remember when we had a reactor at home in the 1990s. I was still at school at the time. The devastation and the impact of having a restricted herd and of the cow going off to the factory was devastating. Financially, it had a significant impact, but emotionally, even beyond that, it created huge turmoil.
I would very much like to be able to not have any caps on ceilings here …
The Deputy will be aware that last week we received our HPAI disease-free status again because we have gone three months without an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza. I pay tribute to our poultry farmers, to private veterinary practitioners, to my staff in the regional veterinary offices and my chief veterinary officer and her team in my Department because this has been a huge effort. At the start of the …
In 2019, the then Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment commissioned an independent economic and sustainability impact assessment, ESIA, which both my Department and Teagasc fed into. The ESIA, which was published in July 2021, estimated that beef imports from the Mercosur countries into the EU would increase by approximately 53,000 tonnes. The study noted that, assuming the additional imports were in high-e…
I remind the Deputy that the Government opposed the Mercosur trade deal, for very good reasons, which I have articulated. In line with our programme for Government commitment to work with like-minded countries that oppose the deal, I very much took a twin-track approach over the course of the last year. Every month that I attend the Agri-Fish Council in Brussels, trade is on the agenda. I have raised our concerns on …
Irrespective of what way the Deputy tries to spin this, the record shows very clearly what way Ireland voted. If he talks to anybody in Europe who is in favour of the deal, they are very clear that the Irish Government opposed it. Irrespective of what he tries to tell people, the facts are the facts, and they are there. The Deputy can put down questions to the Minister for trade on all elements of trade deals. I do n…
In 2019, the then Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment commissioned an independent economic and sustainability impact assessment, ESIA, which both my Department and Teagasc fed into. As part of the ESIA, and specifically on the macroeconomic impacts of the agreement for Ireland, it was noted that shifts in employment across sectors were forecast to be marginal and to mirror changes in production across sect…
I have been very clear in my role since 23 January last year on every given occasion. Four days after I became the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I was in Brussels at my first Agri-Fish Council, and I put on the record my concerns and opposition to the Mercosur trade deal. I have worked very closely with individual like-minded countries to build a coalition and try to get a blocking minority. I have a…
I am sorry but I think the Deputy is mixing me up with the Minister for trade and that sector. The Deputy is welcome to put that question down. What I talk about is the role I have played. I have said very clearly on the record of the House, in response to the Deputy's first question, exactly what I have done over the last year and what I continue to do to advocate for our sector. I would pull the Deputy up on the fa…
We voted against it.
I thank Deputy Ward for raising what is a very important issue. It is fair to say that sometimes we sit in here for oral questions on agriculture, food and the marine, and predominantly the questions are raised by rural-based Deputies but animal welfare is in everyone's interest. I have no doubt that Deputy Ward's constituents in Dublin and Dún Laoghaire are passionate about animal welfare. I am determined to continu…
The Deputy will be aware that I have just concluded a public consultation on my new animal welfare strategy for 2026 to 2030, which I will introduce this year. I thank everybody who made contributions on that. Animal welfare crosses so many different areas. The control of dogs legislation came back in under my Department since last summer with some significant work. I am really happy about that. As part of the negoti…
We are very much at one on this. This is something I want to work on with colleagues. This is something we discussed in the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party. It will also be debated and discussed at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food, and beyond the House, working with my colleagues at the Department of agriculture, the Ministers of State, Deputies Dooley, Grealish and Healy-Rae. It transcends and co…
Soundbites.
I do not appreciate being misrepresented. During questions on agriculture earlier, a debate about farmers and agriculture went into the area of a trade deal and what trade policy was, and I highlighted that it was not my direct role.
I fought my sector's corner on the Mercosur trade deal. The Deputy knows what way the Government voted. I made that very clear.
With regard to the point the Deputy raised around Bord Bia, what I implore everyone-----
I want to answer on the substantive point the Deputy raised.
Deputy Tóibín made a political charge.
I want to answer the substantive point he raised, if he lets me.
Either the Deputy wants me to respond to his question or he does not. On the point about Bord Bia, there is nuance and detail involved. A calm space is needed for this to be explained. We have dealt with soundbites, attacks and rash actions and comments by some people in this House that do farmers a disservice. Farmers benefit greatly from the integrated nature of international trade deals. We export 90% of our food …