I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this important debate as we approach the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale illegal war of aggression against its peaceful neighbour, Ukraine. It is essential that we never lose sight of the fact that Russia, in a fundamental violation of the UN Charter and international law, launched an unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, a European country and fellow United…
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
Be nice now.
I thank the Deputy for raising this very serious issue. I have offered my condolences to Harvey Morrison Sherratt's family, to Gillian and Stephen, on previous occasions, as has Deputy McDonald. I respect the Deputy's commitment to the issue. As I have said in this House before, no words of condolence or consolation to Harvey's parents are enough. It is an enormous trauma for any parent to go through but, in these ci…
This is the factual position. It is not right or proper, in my view, that any other construction should be put on it. As we now know, any protected disclosure is investigated by an independent person, not by the Minister or anyone else. The allegations, as the Deputy outlined, are very serious and warrant investigation. That is currently under way in the manner set out in law by the protected disclosure process. Ther…
That is something I cannot comprehend. That needs to be the subject matter of an inquiry.
The Deputy made a comment in respect of the Minister receiving this, which is not correct in the sense that there is a dedicated channel, a secure, dedicated mailbox, set up to receive protected disclosures via the ministerial channel. The Minister does not engage with that. The legislation is very clear on that.
The legislation was passed in the House.
The protected disclosure was received in the mailbox on 31 August.
First, the notification was sent from the Department to the reporting person informing them that in accordance with section 8-----
You are not because you gave an opposite perspective.
I did not interrupt you. Please.
The commissioner for protected disclosures, who is responsible, acknowledged receipt on 2 September. Once transmitted, the commissioner independently determines the appropriate prescribed person or public body to follow up on the disclosure. The HSE has issued a statement, as the Deputy is aware. Ministers are required to establish dedicated channels to receive protected disclosures and to publish information on how …
Access to records is strictly limited to ensure the identities of the-----
-----reporting person and any persons named in the report are kept confidential to the greatest extent possible.
All disclosures received by a Minister or Minister of State must be transmitted to the protected disclosures commissioner within ten calendar days of receipt. That is a statutory requirement under the Act.
I am but Deputy McDonald was too. It is not good enough that misleading presentations are being made by the Deputy.
Let us not play politics.
First of all, I fundamentally disagree with the positioning of the Deputy in respect of the housing issue, which is the number one priority facing our country, particularly young people. Progress was made under Housing for All and the targets outlined in it were achieved, despite commentary to the contrary. Over 137,000 houses have been built since Housing for All was published, with €14 billion in terms of capital E…
I have never said that.
We have over 190,000 workers in the construction sector. That is up by about 45,000 since 2019, so there has been huge work done in terms of the human resources requirement for house construction. I was on a housing site last week in Ballyvolane in Cork. They are now building the houses within a nine-week timeframe because of the infrastructure work that went in there about two years ago. Up to 800 houses will be del…
We need houses of different types and size and different approaches to solve this issue.
Everywhere you go, the Opposition opposes almost all of the measures.
What Deputy Sherlock offered there is of no real substance-----
-----in terms of talking about a new agency. The LDA will now have €8.5 billion for direct build.
I thank the Deputy for raising what is an existential issue facing humankind. I also welcome her mother, Madeline, and her good friends to the Chamber. I hope they have a very enjoyable day. I will also take this opportunity to wish President Connolly the very best of success in her role as President of Ireland, as we did yesterday.
I fully concur with the objective of addressing the issue of climate change. I have …