The Deputy called it a transition plan but she is masking her real view that farmers should get out of farming. That is what she is saying. We have a different approach.
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
No, I have not.
MARA is part of the solution. In 2022 the Government introduced the nitrates action programme. The Deputy knows there is an action plan there. She also knows it is the most robust nitrates action programme to date in terms of water quality. Last August the Department of agriculture and marine published Water and Agriculture - A Collaborative Approach. Progress has been made with a 10% reduction in nitrate concentrati…
We are not failing farmers; we are endeavouring to get a sustainable landing zone for all concerned.
I answered some of this earlier in response to a different question. Just to get a sense of perspective, progress is being made even within the existing system. There is no doubt there is a significant increase in people waiting. However, over 4,000 assessments were completed in 2024, a 30% increase on 2023. Some 1,400 assessments were completed in the first three months of this year, a 65% increase compared with the…
Everything has to be evidence-based. The Deputy's assertions-----
The biggest major research into sexual abuse in this country was done nearly two decades ago and was quite revealing. It was not revealing in terms of race or anything like that. It was revealing in terms of the prevalence of abuse across the country. One can argue that was earlier, but it still continues.
One can look at all of the inquiries we have had. We had one into institutional abuse in industrial schools and…
Get my point. We need to-----
We do need-----
I do not have to prove you wrong. I just told you-----
I mentioned what happened in industrial schools and in schools, in terms of other institutional settings-----
-----long before there was any modern sort of increase in terms of different nationalities coming into the country.
Again, as I said earlier, we are providing funding in the interim both to the HSE but also to private providers. Last year private providers cost about €6.8 million and we have allocated a further €10 million this year to deliver close to 3,000 more assessments and to boost capacity, with new assessment teams and so forth. Perhaps the Deputy could work with the HSE to identify private capacity within the Cavan area. …
I will engage with the Minister in respect of this. It is my understanding that there is no cutback programme in place. We have been expanding services generally in the further education field but I will certainly bring this to the Minister's attention, with a view to reverting to the Deputy on it.
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I do not know whether the person concerned has secured a personal insolvency practitioner because that is the mechanism to deal with this in terms of engaging with whoever has the loan now. Generally, the courts have been sympathetic to people in their primary family residence, in terms of not evicting. A process of engagement is required to see if a resolution can be worked …
Given that the person has cancer, and I do not know the full background of the case-----
Over the last decade loans have been sold but that has not resulted in wholesale evictions, which was asserted at the time. If people engage, generally speaking-----
I do not know the background to this case but if people engage, cases can get resolved.
My understanding is that the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien, is finalising work on a draft policy framework for unmanned aircraft systems. He expects to publish it in the summer and will seek to identify and address any public, regulatory or legislative gaps. There is a comprehensive EU legislative framework in place to regulate safe drone operations that is directly applicable in Ireland. These regulations c…
Is Ballincollig on the south side or the north side? That kind of argument was used 30 years ago but the bottom line is that light rail will be good for every part of the city. On the Cork city task force, there has been huge investment in Cork over the last four to five years. I have indicated that we will be setting up a Cork city task force but we have to get the terms of reference and the focus right. I agree wit…
The scheme has been very effective. The targets were refined this year by the Ministers for housing and public expenditure with a view to making sure resources are targeted at those who are in immediate danger of homelessness. We do not want local authorities only doing acquisitions as part of their social housing programmes. We want local authorities building new social houses and to do more of that. That, said the …
I will talk to the Minister. The abolition of town councils was a big mistake. I said that at the time, although I was in opposition. I think it was introduced by Brendan Howlin but he subsequently said it was a mistake. I am a great believer in restoring councils or creating new councils in line with the programme for Government. I will have a look at who is on the task force because there are always people who just…
In my honest opinion, Dublin City Council could be performing better with regard to housebuilding and could have performed better over the last-----
I am just saying it. There are too many coming into the House asking for more and more. To be very frank about it, I have watched O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road over the years and it should not take a decade to get agreement on what we do to build houses on a massive site.
There are grants available for derelict buildings and derelict houses.