It is fair to say that Northern Ireland has made enormous progress on parades over the past decades. We have to avoid any return to the divisions of the past. I am aware of the decision of the High Court in Northern Ireland, of the Parades Commission ruling on the Drumcree march application and of the review announced by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. It is important to recall the High Court's decision …
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
First of all, the Central Bank report was from 2019 until the present day. The very measures the Central Bank highlighted are the ones we have taken over the past year and a half, in particular, and before that in terms of accelerating our planning process - all of which the Deputy opposed. Everything that the Central Bank has articulated needs to happen the Deputy has opposed. Regarding environmental assessments and…
Yes, the Deputy has. As for the Deputy's State construction company, that would take years now. A total of 80% of all housing now is funded by the State in one form or another or as a State investment process.
We built a record number of social housing units last year - 9,000 plus. This year, we will build more again. Over the past five years, if we look at the numbers of social houses that have been built, they have been very significant, and we have facilitated and funded that, apart altogether from affordable housing and so on. The Deputy never acknowledged that. There is significant momentum compared with where we were…
I would look forward to Deputy's support if we take other measures to accelerate-----
-----planning and housing-----
In fairness, we have been out talking about this and so has the Minister. Ireland has maintained an effective eight-year fare freeze alongside targeted measures like the young adult card, free travel for under nines and the 90-minute fare, which is support that compares favourably with international practice. We have to balance affordability with a financially sustainable transport system that is able to fund service…
Certainly, I will refer this to the Minister for housing. Regarding the defective concrete block scheme, there has been very significant progress. Approximately 3,500 applications have been received, 1,289 applicants have commenced remediation works, 527 homes have completed remediation and 1,462 have submitted remedial works. We have spent about €322 million on the scheme so far. In relation to supports, of course p…
I appreciate the Deputy's interest in this issue. I was very pleased with the decision of the HSE senior management to approve the reimbursement of Skyclarys for patients over 16 years of age with Friedreich's ataxia following substantive engagement and negotiations with the company. The company did come to the table with a significant new offer in respect of the drug itself. The HSE has advised that it is working to…
That is crucial, obviously. It was crucial that the stocks would be in the country.
The HSE is now working through processes required------
-----to enable the relevant specialists to register with the high tech-----
I apologise but it is a significant issue that everyone in the House is concerned about. I pay tribute to the families.
At this time of the year, the school transport issue causes a significant degree of stress and so on. Notwithstanding that, we are transporting far more children now. There are about 180,000 students being transported. It was a key part of the original free school initiative of Donogh O'Malley. Transport was key to it in rural Ireland, in particular. There is continuing expansion and additional resources. However, th…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I was at the Tullamore Show and the ploughing championships, and the Fianna Fáil think-in was in Tullamore as well. It is all happening. I also went to Tullamore D.E.W. distillery, which has received €150 million in private sector investment in its extraordinary facility, which is linked to the farming community of the midlands and provides significant employment in the area…
We have seen that the event centre in Cork has taken a considerable length of time.
As I said earlier, we have an effective eight-year fare freeze alongside targeted measures in terms of public transport. We have the-----
-----young adult card, free travel for under-nines and a 90-minute fare. For most of the year, I have been taking questions from Deputies, all of whom want additional services, be that additional bus or train services, better facilities and so on. We have to have a sustainable basis for funding extensive enhancement and expansion of public transport into the future. That is the balance that has to be struck in this c…
I think a bit of a mistake has been made here. There is no threat to the funding for men's sheds. Government has been very supportive of men's sheds. I met quite a number of participants at the ploughing championships yesterday and they acknowledged that the Government has been particularly supportive of men's sheds. I have opened a good few of them and have been to them, particularly in Carrigaline in my constituenc…
That was not the consideration. The more fundamental point is Government expenditure ceilings, which are set by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure. Every Department has to operate within those ceilings. Most Deputies want us to expand services. Deputy Ward is correct insofar as the numbers of people on public transport have grown exponentially, which is a great thing. Then others - corre…
I will say two things. AI is here to stay-----
-----but at least within Europe, we have the European Union AI Act which has been in force since August. That is the first European Union-wide risk-based legal framework for AI, banning unacceptable uses and imposing stringent requirements on high-risk systems. I urge a note of caution that those who were driving this for the last four or five years are now saying "Hang on a second".
It is, but they have developed the market fairly significantly. I am not saying. I believe in regulation. Europe is the most regulated; the US is not.
The second point I make is that we have effectively had a moratorium on data centres for four or five years in Ireland. That gets lost in all of the debate.
Yes, prior to that we had a significant growth, but data centres are an integral part of the ICT industry. We …
I want to make one fundamental point. The methodology used in that is open to question, in my view. Anyone below 60% of the median income is adjudged to be in poverty. I do not necessarily go along with the relative poverty approach. Consistent poverty and deprivation is a more accurate measure.
The Deputy spoke about DEIS. DEIS does not get measured.
I apologise; the Deputy referred to a school classroom. In DEIS schools, there are much-reduced pupil-teacher ratios. She was quite dismissive of the hot school meals not being measured-----