-----and a public consultation will be carried out prior to this review.
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
Two things. First of all, in terms of Covid-19, the Government has established an evaluation of the management of and the State response to Covid-19-----
-----which was an unprecedented public health event across the world that had the most significant and severe impacts on societies and on people. The more fundamental objective has always been to try to protect and save lives. People acted in very good faith to do that. I just want to make that point.
What we are reluctant to do is add a new layer now because this will go on forever. I do not mean that in any disres…
The last thing we want is more and more public inquiries, including statutory-based public inquiries, which can go on for years. That is not satisfactory either.
I think the Minister for Finance announced this quite some time back. It is part of a regular review of the LPT. The Minister has worked extremely hard to make sure that any increases will be modest, particularly in terms of the valuations and so on.
He did that a number of years ago and effectively managed it. Remember that the revenue goes to improving and enhancing services that people in this House come in looki…
Yes, women will be able to travel abroad.
The report is broadly welcome in terms of the progress that is being made and has been made in the past two to three years in particular, when compared to where we were. We will continue to work to enhance and improve services, particularly the specialist services required abroad. Women will be facilitated to avail of such services, and the HSE is clear on that. We can revert to the Deputy with the details.
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is a fair point that she is making. State agencies should not be polluting waterways and our rivers. Certainly, Uisce Éireann should not be. There should be severe penalties. To be fair, on the other hand, Uisce Éireann develops a lot of wastewater treatment plants, which are very beneficial to water quality. It has to put up with a lot of objections and judicial reviews t…
First, I have to get a report on that. It is not the standard, and it is unfair to say it is the standard by which we are going to deal with biodiversity and our natural habitats. We have doubled the budget. I was involved in the last five years with the then Minister of State with responsibility for the NPWS, Senator Malcolm Noonan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. We have doubled the budget…
Gardaí do not tolerate it. I would respectfully say-----
I do not believe they do at all. The gardaí do very strong work in terms of the whole issue pertaining to drug abuse and the trafficking of drugs.
In fact, we have increased resources and we will continue to increase resources. There are now record numbers applying for An Garda Síochána. Events like last night take gardaí away from the front-line and where they would ordinarily be. There were so many gardaí there last evening to protect people, and those kinds of events draw from our capacity. In the general, normal work of An Garda Síochána, gardaí are very fo…
I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising what is a very important issue. I recognise that this medication is particularly important for those with a history of hormone-sensitive cancers, such as breast cancer, who cannot take hormone replacement therapy due to the risk of cancer recurrence.
I understand the real difference that this medication can make to a person's quality of life. In relation to this drug, as the Deput…
We will come back to the Deputy on this. I take note of his comments on other products and the extension of HRT.
The Deputy has made a cogent and strong case for more gardaí in Roscrea. We are very conscious of this issue. I think about 11,000 applied to the Garda this year. We might have to look at training capacity to get more throughput. I think the Minister is looking at that. The Minister would acknowledge that in the past number of years, there was a concentration on Dublin. This was post-Covid and with the closure of the…
I appreciate the Deputy has raised this issue in terms of broader local authority financing and, specifically, in terms of Storm Éowyn. I will engage with the Minister for housing on this. Overall, in the past five years, significant resources have been allocated to local authorities. That has to be acknowledged. It is quite substantial on many fronts and a lot of work has been enabled because of that. However, deman…
My understanding is that discussions are ongoing between the Department of Health and the Irish Pharmacy Union, IPU, in respect of these and other issues. I checked this with the Minister. I will ask the Minister to revert to the Deputy in relation to this. These agreements are hard negotiated. Huge resources go in now in terms of medical reimbursement and so on.
I will talk to the Minister in respect of where the negotiations are right now.
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know he is focused on increased services and facilities in Ballinasloe more generally. I will talk to the Minister for education in respect of Scoil an Chroí Naofa. Those buildings are clearly old. If the project is at stage 2b, I hope, with the capital allocation that has been given to education this year and through the national development plan, we will be in a position …
I thank the Deputy for raising this. I agree with his points on the severity of the storm. Actually, I would be confident on that one, in terms of mutual aid assistance. I met with the ESB, Irish Water and others in the review and we did not pick up a sense that there was any foot-dragging or difficulty in terms of overseas engineers coming to Ireland from the UK or France, and crews coming to Ireland to help us in o…
I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very sad and challenging situation for Arklow and those working in the Merck Life Sciences plant. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, and ensure the IDA and Enterprise Ireland respond - what normally happens now is that they do respond - and that each employee is engaged with in terms of their own individual choices regarding redeployment or alternative employment…
I thank the Deputy for raising this. It has to be done properly and right. It has to be done on a phased basis. I think the Deputy was saying the regulations are nearly ready.
The Deputy was also referring to the Department. I would prefer that they get it right. There will be a lot of people affected by this too, and we have to be conscious of that. The best way to do it is to phase it in in an orderly manner so that people know and there is no cliff edge. Inevitably there will have to be, but it has to be done properly. Also, the capacity must be there to do it. As the Deputy says, we do…
Without question, tá fadhb ann ó thaobh daoine gan dídean de. Níl aon dabht faoi sin. It is a much more complex situation than it would have been five or ten years ago. There are far wider pressures on emergency accommodation today than there were. I do not want to go into all of the details but that is clear. It is a factor. We worked with Cork Simon and other homeless agencies in respect of Housing First, which was…
We have.