The testimony of Paul Guy has been very impactful. As I said earlier to Deputy Bacik, who raised this question on Leaders' Questions, it is very traumatic for families generally with loved ones in nursing homes but particularly for the Guy family. Legislation is already in place to deal with what happened in these nursing homes. We do not need new adult safeguarding legislation to deal with what happened to Audeon Gu…
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
It was abuse. We have a regulatory authority and legislation there. A lot of work has been done in the past year on adult safeguarding, the policy is near completion and there will be legislation. What happened should not have happened and there are already laws there to deal with it. Implication and oversight are required.
Quite a significant number of economists, along with the Housing Agency, are saying that measures taken by this House in 2021 restricted supply, so a lot of people are saying there is a clear need for reform of the rent pressure zones. The vast majority of commentators have said that. The key objective is to protect existing tenants and create certainty so that if someone invests in the future, at a minimum, there is…
There is a lot of evidence already. The Deputy can read the Housing Finance Agency's report and other reports. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has said this as well.
Deputy Bacik wants to keep the existing system going forever. The legislation ends at the end of the year so, therefore, we have to give a period for the introduction of new legislation.
It is a very serious issue. The National Shared Services Office, NSSO, is responsible for payroll for civil servants and officeholders. The Minister has commissioned an external audit to go into the NSSO to examine in a much more comprehensive, forensic and detailed way the issues that have arisen. There needs to be further validation of what has emerged, particularly in terms of the 13,000 civil servants, and to see…
It is not the central issue about this legislation.
Deputy O'Gorman asked a question so he should have the good manners to listen to the answer. It is not central.
If it is included or extra, the Deputy should not make it central because, fundamentally, the impact of the Bill will be symbolic. About €600,000 worth of goods alone in the past six years-----
The Deputy is not going to listen. I am saying that the figure for goods over the past six years was €600,000. The Minister is examining that aspect of it in terms of services. The Deputy knows as well that the legal ground here is extremely narrow anyway. I read the entirety of the Attorney General's opinion about this and it did not change fundamentally from the opinions of previous Attorneys General about trade co…
I do not know. I do not deal with the operational practices of An Garda Síochána. I do not intervene in those. I was very surprised to see this. This is not Government policy but I will revert to the Deputy and ask for communication to be sent to him. I will talk to the Minister for justice about this.
The sufficiency of the number of gardaí across the country, in Cork city and county in particular, is an ongoing issue. As of 31 April, there are 1,281 gardaí working in Cork city and Cork county. Of these, 664 are assigned to Cork city and 616 to Cork county. Since 2015, more than 300 probationer gardaí have been assigned to stations in County Cork, including seven from attestation in March and five from last week's…
I appreciate the Deputy raising this very serious issue for the community. As he says, the services were delivered in clinics located in the corridor that was part of the designated centre, I believe, and the residents' environment. This necessitated restrictive, controlled access to the community nursing unit and resulted in restricted movement for the residents. As part of the compliance plan for St. Joseph's, a co…
I thank the Deputy for raising this. I appreciate that the school is open to and wants to develop a special class. That is good because some schools are less proactive in respect of this, so I appreciate the efforts by the board. The school will be kept under consideration, I understand, for a special class for 2026-27. I will talk to the Minister of State, Michael Moynihan, who is with me here. According to the NCSE…
I think we will need a regulatory framework governing drones. We have to have a common-sense approach to the use of drones. Did the Deputy refer to 300 food deliveries?
We have to examine all of that because that potentially clearly leads to significant congestion, security issues, safety issues, noise issues, amenity issues and the need for physical activity. There might be certain cases where people need such a service or it could be effective if you are infirm or elderly. I can understand that. The Deputy has raised a lot of issues. We need a policy framework governing this and u…
Again, I will work with the Minister to raise the issue the Deputy has raised. Obviously, there is a very extensive school building programme. There was a need for additional capital to be allocated to education. The Minister for public expenditure has agreed with the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and that capital has been allocated now. Hopefully that might result in further completions this year, but the school buildin…
I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. EnergyCloud is a significant community-based organisation providing a significant service to the community, to the public at large and to the national effort. If he can send that to me, I will forward it to the Minister for climate.
We will look through the detail and get the Deputy a comprehensive response.
I was in Galway recently. I met the county and city managers. I have agreed to meet both of them for a more detailed discussion around development issues-----
I just want to get on with it.
I am talking to TDs. I will meet you as well. I do not want to have 25 people arriving in again and we all chatting and everyone saying the same thing.
I have met TDs and I will meet TDs. I have just said that I met the county and city managers because there are a lot of objections in Galway to housing developments. On the water question, Irish Water will be resourced and has been resourced. Increased resources will be allocated to Irish Water under the national development plan. I am fully aware of the issues around wastewater treatment in Galway. We will work to a…
The events in Carlow were very traumatic for everyone involved-----
-----including the wider community and the family of Evan Fitzgerald, a young man whose life is now no more. It was a very sad and traumatic event. I will check with the Minister for justice for clarity around dates. The Minister or the Department of justice may have been told this was going to Fiosrú. If that is the case, one does not comment on it. That is normal.