That is what I am saying.
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
On letting them play, I am perplexed about this. Deputy Paul Murphy raised this as well. I am slightly worried that there is a campaign under way to try to blame the Government or create this narrative, as Deputy Murphy did, that the Government is anti-Palestinian or is not facilitating Palestinians coming to Ireland. The bottom line is 700 visas have been granted to Palestinian nationals since the outbreak of the wa…
There is no delay in medical evacuations whatsoever. A false narrative has developed around medical evacuation of children from Palestine. I do not know where that is coming from or why people would even want to create that false narrative to undermine the Government..
No, it is not.
The doctor should maybe contact the Minister. We work with the World Health Organization. Some doctors wanted to do it by another route through Jordan. We can look at that but let us do it properly, through the proper channels, because these are serious matters. These are children with serious injuries. We have to make sure their parents are on board. Family unification is there and we have done that already with 12 …
I am dealing with it now but it is an important point. This is a serious matter. You cannot have a group forming in any locality and simply say, "Ignore all your normal regulatory procedures for visa applications". That is not possible. You have to get the documentation right. We have to know who is coming in with the children. We have to know the passports are proper. A lot of that was open to question, apparently, …
Just hear me out, please. For the children, additional documents must be verified, including birth certificates and letters of consent to establish the relationship between the child and the adult they are travelling with. Most of the children would not have been travelling with a parent. Then there are all sorts of issues about employment, other ties and indicating that a person has obligations to return to home. Th…
I will come to that. The basic thing that should have happened is that an appeal should have been entered.
That was today, at 1 o'clock?
It does not sound right to me that an appeal would come in in that manner given that a week or more has passed since the original decision. The whole thing is somewhat perplexing. That is all I am saying.
I do not know whether GAA Palestine is affiliated to the GAA. Normally what would happen is a sporting organisation would come to the Government of the day and say "We want to organise X, Y and Z" well in advance.
I do not know who is behind the whole thing.
Sorry, look that is-----
Whose campaign is it? Is it the Deputy's campaign or whose campaign is it? What is going on?
So would I.
Sorry, but I do not understand the way the Deputy is dealing with it. It seems to be more about the campaign than the children. I hate saying that.
I am asking legitimate questions. There was no notification that anyone was coming. You do not just rock up to the Department of justice, ad hoc, and say "Minister, come down here". He might not even have been in the building.
All of it suggests that something is not right, in my view. I am not saying anything was done wrong by the organisers but the whole thing seems haphazardly organised. That is all I can say.
It is strange; that is all I can say.
We are talking about children here. I think there should be a greater sense of organisation behind this and-----
We want to help.
Apologies. Tibet will be on the EU-China forum. We always raise issues with China. China always responds, by the way, robustly and never has any issue with the matter being raised. We do not get a satisfactory response from our perspective. On the Dalai Lama and so forth, I could not agree with the Deputy more.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 17, inclusive, together.
Ireland enjoys a deep and strong relationship with Canada, a country with which we share many values. Increasingly, that relationship has an economic focus.
In recent times, we have expanded our presence in Canada with consulates opened in Vancouver and Toronto in addition to our embassy in Ottawa. We also have a strong agency presence in Canada, inclu…
I am amazed and somewhat shocked at the orientation and nature of the Opposition's presentations, particularly in terms of CETA.
Someone said these are legitimate questions about the investor courts. The investor courts were dealt with through the European court judgment and will be dealt with in terms of the legislation. All trade agreements have to have a mediating facility and mechanism. Deputy O'Rourke stated th…
-----that we do not believe in free trade.