Our standards are among the highest in the world. It is interesting that in other trade deals some of the countries did not manage to export too much into Europe because of the SPS standards, which are often described as non-tariff barriers.
TDs / Micheál Martin
Micheál Martin
Taoiseach
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
688,766
words spoken in the chamber
686,628 as a minister, 2,138 as a TD
197
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 6,546 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 11 |
| January 2025 | 6 |
| February 2025 | 438 |
| March 2025 | 518 |
| April 2025 | 317 |
| May 2025 | 426 |
| June 2025 | 424 |
| July 2025 | 344 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 146 |
| October 2025 | 375 |
| November 2025 | 291 |
| December 2025 | 281 |
| January 2026 | 326 |
| February 2026 | 529 |
| March 2026 | 229 |
| April 2026 | 385 |
| May 2026 | 474 |
| June 2026 | 425 |
| July 2026 | 181 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 198 |
| October 2026 | 222 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 6,426 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Cork South-Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Taoiseach 23 January 2025 to now
I thank the Deputy. I am very conscious of this issue. He has been advocating, as has Deputy Shane Moynihan who has been hotfoot onto me in respect of the timelines for this. DART+ South West is part of the broader DART programme. I will speak to the Minister. Permission was granted in November of last year. All of the benefits are there in terms of increasing capacity. We will work with the Minister to see whether t…
I thank Deputy Connolly. That is too long a time. We should know what is happening with particular sites. I would have thought that if the NTA or Galway City Council has possession, it should engage with the other council and make the site available. I do not know the full details but there are always ways of getting things done. Park and ride facilities do matter and they can be of significant value to a city in fre…
Obviously the identification of centres has been very problematic and challenging for communities and for the Government. I am not sure the appellation of "waste" can be applied to it in this context. The context is much different in terms of ordinarily procuring or acquiring buildings. I will talk to the Minister in respect of the site and seek an update in respect of it.
I will engage with the HSE to bring the clarity the Deputy requires in respect of St. Brigid's Hospital and the centre there. Facilities should be used in terms of primary care. Again, I will have to engage with the HSE in respect of this to bring further clarity to it and get an updated position.
As I said earlier, a national policy and strategy in respect of migration is being developed. I object to the conflation of racism and attacks on people because of their ethnic background and the Government's position. That is wrong.
It is wrong to do it. These attacks occurred long before anything was announced this week or this month. It is not good enough that the Deputy would make those assertions. There is nothing wrong with a proper legal system of entering into the country.
Sorry, it is not about mixed messages. It has always been the case that asylum is treated through the asylum system. People have never been allowed to work immediately when they are seeking asylum. It is not as if there is an open door; there is not and there never has been. Even though we were criticised by the far right for having an open door, there never was an open-door system in terms of asylum.
There have been work permits and freedom of movement within the European Union, which are all very positive.
Again, there has been extensive consultation with the NTA on BusConnects across the country in Dublin, in Cork and everywhere. We have been strongly making the case to the NTA to engage with and listen to the public and society more generally. This new scheme has been in operation for four weeks. I understand there is a meeting tomorrow with the NTA and the local public representatives, is there not?
Okay. We can deal with it then. The Deputy should engage with the NTA tomorrow.
I am not disagreeing with the Deputy; I just think that tomorrow is a good opportunity to bring the views of the people to the NTA.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He is correct when he says that this is a very serious issue. Access to the GMS in dental capacities is very restrictive. I will talk to the Minister for Health in respect of this. My understanding is that Cork university dental hospital used to take public patients in the past. That was always the tradition. I will certainly pursue that specific issue with the Minister to s…
Certainly, Deputy. I will have to discuss this with the Ministers for education and public expenditure to see what the issue is and whether it is ready to go. It is an ASD wing. We have put a lot of capital into special education in the past year or two to get more special classes built and so on. I will check with the Minister what is holding it up. The Deputy will have my support in trying to progress this project.
More generally, Dublin has benefited significantly in the past year or two in terms of an increase in garda numbers. There may be specific geographic areas-----
The Deputy is focused on Dublin West. There is no question that the city centre has benefited hugely. That has had an impact. The good news is that numbers are increasing. The last intake into Templemore - 220 - was the highest ever. I was with the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, in Templemore recently when approximately 190 gardaí came out and passed through. In various parts of the country, including the Deputy's are…
First of all, I do not accept the premise upon which the Deputy is basing her question. We do not govern via opinion polls, nor could we do so. We should not-----
I am making a fundamental point here. Is the Deputy is seriously suggesting that the Government should react to every opinion poll on every specific issue in the country? Sure we would have chaos.
On the issue itself, I think the Deputy has brought legislation forward. We will examine that. All the parties will examine that legislation, as I have said. I think we have submitted a timed amendment on it. That is the approach that the political parties are taking.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 12 together.
The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and I both attended the recent G20 Summit in South Africa. We had a number of conversations in the margins of meetings there, including on the situation in Ukraine, on which an informal meeting of the coalition of the willing took place. Previously, I met with Prime Minister Starmer at Chequers on 12 September. We discussed a broad…
I thank all of the Deputies for raising a range of issues. Deputy Smith was the first to raise the issue of legacy. I believe there is a sincere commitment on behalf of the British Government as to the implementation of the legacy framework. That is shared by Prime Minister Starmer and, indeed, Secretary of State Hilary Benn, who has acted honourably in all of the negotiations and discussions in respect of the legacy…
It was a legitimate consultation. If the Deputy believes in freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, what he and like-minded people were about was stopping that from even happening.
They never complain about that. It is fair play for them to do that. There is balance here.
Of course the Deputy knows about the protests. She knows all about them.
They were on the public television, for God's sake.
They were on the public television, in the media and everywhere. In this House-----