Go on out of that. Are you the leader of the Social Democrats now?
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
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| 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
The Deputy opposite has made assertions in his Leaders' Question and I am quite entitled to respond to them. The bottom line here is supply. There is nothing coming from him on supply. The Housing Commission recommended reform of the RPZ scheme. The Social Democrats welcomed the Housing Commission report at the time and attacked Government for the failure to respond to it. I remember it well in the Dáil. All of the M…
-----because of course we have not got rid of RPZs. If anything, as Threshold has stated, we have significantly increased protection for renters while at the same time, in a balanced measure, we have created policy certainty for investment because we desperately needed more supply in the rental market. We clearly do if we are to get to 50,000 per annum. That is the piece the Deputy does not address at all. He has nev…
-----bar an SSIA-type investment scheme which would take a couple of years before you had the requisite funds to invest in capital in housing.
The State is already investing capital in housing to the tune of €7 billion plus. I put the question yesterday.
We need about €20 billion in terms of investment, made up of private sector and public sector. Tell me how the Deputy proposes to get private sector investment into the apartment market.
No. That is not true
It is not true.
Sorry, all existing tenants will be capped at 2%.
No-----
All existing tenants, when they stay in the tenancy, will be capped at 2%.
In terms of any new builds or new apartment builds-----
-----after March 2026, when the new legislation comes in, they will be capped-----
Please listen. The Deputy asked a question. All new apartments after March 2026 will be subject to a cap of the CPI, inflation. Then, six years beyond that, the landlord will be able to reset to market-----
Let me finish because Deputy O'Callaghan has done nothing on supply. The combination of that facility for new builds, which we do not have yet, by the way, and there are no tenants in them-----
-----and the CPI gives the basis upon which we can bring investment back into the market to get more apartments built because supply, ultimately, is the way to moderate rents.
We are not going to do it by rent freezes or by this, that or the other that the Deputy's party has been proposing for the past two to three years, which will only conspire-----
-----to reduce and suppress supply and allow rents to go up even higher.
Could the Deputy repeat those figures, please?
I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very real issue for many people in society, in terms of increased antisocial behaviour. We need both approaches. We need consistently and constantly to deal with the source and the evolution of this, including in school programmes. A lot is being done in schools actually. I visit schools a lot. I was in one recently where there was tremendous inclusivity. The school and the ch…
The line between community engagement and moving into the youth juvenile space is a difficult enough one to crack.
That is a fair presentation. I will talk to the Minister for justice, reflecting on what the Deputy said. There is an absence of consequences within that space before formally referring people to the juvenile justice system - which we are reluctant to do, to give young people a chance - and, on the other hand, ensuring people cannot just behave with abandon and no consequences. I take the Deputy's point but this need…
I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. The Government accepts there are genuine maintenance backlogs in terms of roads across the length and breadth of the country, particularly in south Kerry and Kerry more generally. We have allocated additional money to Kerry County Council for the regular maintenance of the network.
In respect of the Killarney bypass, I tend to call it the Cork-Kerry road.
It is the Cork-Kerry economic corridor. The Macroom and Baile Bhuirne bypass has been extraordinarily transformational environmentally, on public health grounds in terms of the air, on a road safety basis and also in terms of access and opening up Kerry to the economy of the wider hinterland right across the south west. Cork people are always anxious to benefit Kerry people as much as we possibly can in terms of shar…
I am sure the Minister for public expenditure, who is sitting beside me, has heard the plea that the boys of Barr na Sráide once again be able to walk newly paved streets and a regenerated town for the benefit of the entire country and all who visit.
It is very hard to keep up with the poetic qualities of Kerry Deputies. There are a lot of allocations going on at the moment, including €1.8 million to the N70 Creamery Cross to Kenneigh phase 2 paving scheme that is under way, the Blackwater Bridge to Sneem project, the Waterville to Ballybrack project and improvements to the N72 between Tralee and Dingle. A total of €13 million-odd has been allocated to Kerry Coun…