-----and a change in price levels. That is the Government's position. It is a very substantial investment in public services.
On the second tier, some of the models for the second tier would result in thousands of children losing out. What we have opted to do, in a more straightforward way, is to substantially and unprecedentedly, in terms of the scale of the increases the Minister, Deputy Calleary, put forward, inc…
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
It is not a question of we cannot do everything. We have provided very effective measures in respect of child poverty in this budget, which the Deputy seems to have deliberately ignored. There is a weekly increase of €16 in the child support payment, to €78, for children aged 12 and over. That is now up to €4,056 per annum. There is a child support weekly increase of €8, to €58, for children aged under 12, which is u…
The Minister, Deputy Browne, sought that. The increase in allocation to enable 10,000 houses to be built, as opposed to any additional leases and so on, is also very significant. With respect, the Deputy cannot say it is about the market being king in terms of housing because the Government is the biggest single investor in housing at the moment.
Where I disagree with her is, if we want to get to 50,000 houses, we will need the private sector involved. We will. There is a tendency in the Opposition to decry builders or people who will have to build the houses. The bottom line is we have a problem with the viability of apartments. That is well known. There are 40,000 apartments with planning permissions, but they are not being built because the argument has be…
-----the Minister has taken, in addition to the VAT-----
-----will, combined, enable us to get apartments built. We need the private sector in-----
-----to complement what the State is doing. The market is not king according to my philosophy because, in the past four to five years, we have substantially increased the State's investment in housing. This budget does so again with very significant increases.
If we want to get to the level we want to get to, however, we absolutely have to have a combination of public sector investment in housing, along with private sector investment in housing.
The Social Democrats' policies would, in our view, shut out completely the private sector-----
-----contribution to the housing issue.
On the cost of disability payment, as I said, we took steps to enhance the disability allocation by 20%. Also, the domiciliary care allowance is going up by €20 per month, which will be important for those families.
There are 177,000 people on disability allowance who will get a minimum of an extra €520 in 2026. There is an increase of €618 million in the disability budget. That is not a minor amount. It is a very significant increase. By the way, last year, the Social Democrats supported a VAT reduction for hospitality. They did. Yet, they come here today and say they are all against it. They voted against it last night.
You did. You said hospitality should be split between accommodation and food for a 9% VAT rate.
On 9 November, that is the statement that was made.
The Deputies come in here today and attack the Government for doing what they asked us to do the previous year. That is inconsistent.
I could use worse language to describe it but I will not do that. It is essential for this country that we invest in our future and that is what we are doing. The capital budget is very significant here in terms of roads, energy and housing. We have allocated substantial funds.
I have to disagree with the Deputy. The VAT cut for the hospitality sector is overwhelmingly a support for small businesses and the businesses he talked about in Mallow and Glenville.
I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, could tell the Deputy about the impact the cut in hospitality VAT will have in west Cork, which his colleague, Deputy Collins, sought as well.
The Deputy needs to be consistent. Right throughout west Cork, there will be many cafés and restaurants thrilled with that decision because it will underpin jobs-----
-----in those areas throughout.
People go on about fast food chains and McDonald's. These are all franchises run by local people. Even though you see the McDonald's or Burger King sign, it is still local people employing young people and so on. That is what we are talking about. We are not talking about money for the big chains.
We are talking about franchises. Deputy Murphy would not know much about it because he does not believe in business or enterprise.
We have also kept the VAT on electricity and gas at 9%. That is a help to people. If it went back up, it would be a significant burden on people. We have chosen to invest strongly in public services, which will benefit everybody. There are five budgets to come. We did a lot on taxation during the previous three years and we will do more in the budgets to come as well in respect of taxation. Given what is happening in…
Actually, I do not have a housekeeper. I never have had. I do shop every week myself. It is no big deal. I go to the Douglas market and the English Market. I have my routine. The price of food has gone up. It has gone up significantly. I acknowledge that, and that is why we decided to target those on the lowest incomes. We took a deliberate decision. As I said this before in the House, all the left wing parties wante…
Along with Fine Gael and the Independents in government, we said we wanted to prioritise investment in infrastructure and look after disability, not just in terms of the core disability services but education as well, with places and making sure we have a system where every child who needs a place will have it in September, as well as in terms of SNAs and so on, all of which are provided for.
Public services help everybody, workers as well as non-workers. That is an important principle we should not lose sight of.