I ask the Ceann Comhairle, given what has happened and what has happened in the past number of weeks, I want a review of how this is happening. I am not going to come in here-----
TDs / Micheál Martin
Micheál Martin
Taoiseach
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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
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Members of the Government answer parliamentary questions rather than ask them, so this page lists none of theirs.
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Contributions to debates 6,546 in all
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|---|---|
| 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 |
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| May 2026 | 474 |
| June 2026 | 425 |
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| 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
-----and listen to everybody and give them the courtesy of listening and not be allowed to reply.
That is fundamentally wrong.
It needs an intervention from the Ceann Comhairle-----
-----and the Whips as well, and the Chief Whip, to sort this out.
I fully agree with what Deputy Bacik is saying in respect of people's entitlement and families when they place their loved ones into nursing homes. It is absolutely shocking and scandalous there would be any abuse of people residing and living nursing homes. There is a range of existing legislation, including the 2007 Act amended on a number of occasions. There are a lot of measures and powers available to HIQA in re…
Who said that?
The power to remove or cancel a registration is there.
Eight nursing homes had their registration removed last year. It has happened and can happen. Looking at the protected disclosures and the list of complaints in respect of these nursing homes, one could argue that the case merited that type of intervention. However, I think the interim report contains an argument made by HIQA that the profile of one of the nursing homes was completely changed from the time of the ins…
The Deputy's juxtaposition of the migration issue with the genuinely serious problem of overcrowding in prisons is stretching credibility.
It is a false juxtaposition.
Sorry, I did not interrupt the Deputy. I just want to make the point. The Deputy said there are more than 5,000 prisoners. He is saying that if a number of asylum seekers are imprisoned, for whatever reason, they should not be, irrespective of what the reasons might be. That is what he indicated. His suggestion that it is all about some performance for the optics that we just want to get tough on migration, imprisoni…
Sorry?
The Deputy started by saying it is very difficult not to interrupt. I respectfully suggest-----
The Deputy said it was with great difficulty he could not but interrupt. He has never had any difficulty interrupting from my experience in the House.
There is a prison overpopulation issue. That is accepted by the Government. The Minister has brought forward proposals which will result in about 960 additional prison spaces. That can be done as quickly as possible. Opposition is being created where this expansion is…
There has to be a balance. I suggest that the Deputy's basic assertion is wrong and flawed.
I agree with the Deputy this must be a priority to reverse the pollution of Lady's Island Lake. A specific action plan should be developed for the lake and so forth. That will have to involve a number of stakeholders. It will not just be agricultural stakeholders, but, obviously, they will be key. The Minister of State responsible for biodiversity should lead on this in conjunction with the Ministers for agriculture …
I certainly do not. Over the last number of years, I have taken a direct interest in the work of the NPWS and the biodiversity issue. We doubled the staff of the NPWS and we bought additional lands to transform into national parks. We now have a biodiversity officer in every local authority. When he was Minister of State, Senator Malcolm Noonan, did a lot of good work and I worked very well with him on this agenda.
…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Prior to and during, the general election, I included a number of issues regarding disability in our party's manifesto. I was very clear in putting in to the programme for Government the need to increase the DCA. The previous Government increased it by €20 per month. It is a very important allowance and it helps the families of those with disabilities with the cost of disabi…
I accept that up to a point, but of course if we compare the most recent census to the previous one, we see that the number of people, including children, identifying with a disability is increasing exponentially. This can be seen from both censuses. The DCA was originally introduced for severe impacts on children, resulting from disabilities. I expect the numbers to continue to increase. There is an appeals system i…
Perhaps we could also then fine-tune the application process to reduce the necessity for appeals.
Could I just welcome-----
-----a special guest, Aaron O'Shea, who is here with us.
I welcome Aaron. I meant to do it at the beginning. He is aged 14 and from County Clare. He is here with his parents Fidelma and Martin O'Shea as part of the Make-A-Wish Ireland. He met the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, earlier. I wish him a very warm welcome.
No matter how often Deputy McDonald tries to misrepresent the reforms the Government announced last week in respect of the rental sector, it just will not cut it. There are very strong protections in the rent pressure zones, stronger than was the case previously, as a result of the reforms we are going to introduce. In particular, there is a cap of 2% for existing tenants and a cap tied to the CPI for future tenancie…