That is why I would appreciate if he allowed other people to give their perspective. The only reason I raised my eyes was because I thought it was wrong of the Deputy to personalise the issue, demonise an individual who cannot defend himself in this House and make the assertions he has made about someone who has not been nominated to any position by Government. No decision has been taken, but the Deputy chose to take…
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
We have built close to-----
The Deputy is an elected representative and he has set himself up-----
I did not say the Deputy was-----
The Deputy is not a construction housing expert. He never has been. He is-----
The Deputy lectures in social policy, and I believe he is a good lecturer in social policy.
That does not make the Deputy a housing expert.
It was good for the electoral pathway.
In terms of social housing, there has been a significant step change. Last year, more than 10,000 social houses were delivered. More than 48,000 social houses have been added to the social housing stock since 2020. We need to do more and we need to build more social houses. The tenant in situ scheme was introduced in 2023. All Deputies have correctly raised that. There was no tenant in situ scheme before 2023. Substa…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 20, inclusive, together.
I travelled to Paris for the AI Action Summit on 10 and 11 February, co-hosted by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi of India. The summit gathered key stakeholders to explore how we can develop artificial intelligence, AI, technologies and uses globally while ensuring that nobody is left behind. It also discussed preserving our freedoms in the AI …
I thank all the Deputies for contributing to this debate. It is important. The debate illustrates the importance of the Oireachtas committee on AI that will be established. I look forward to further detailed, sensible and balanced consideration of the issue. We can already witness a divide that is too extreme. There are those who see AI as totally negative, others who see positives in it and others still who see the …
I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 to 28, inclusive, together.
A Policing Service for our Future is the Government's plan to implement the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. The implementation of the plan was overseen by a dedicated programme office in the Department of the Taoiseach and an implementation group on policing reform, chaired by an independent person.
This work concluded in…
I appreciate that.
On the operational issues, those are matters for the Garda Commissioner. I am not in a position to intervene in the operational organisation of An Garda Síochána. The issues have been there for some time. The Minister is in a very difficult position if the Garda Commissioner has not been invited to the conference as well. His predecessor took the same position and I accept that position, by the wa…
I would argue that the gardaí have strenuously denied the allegations that were asserted in this House and issued statements to that effect. The Minister took the allegations very seriously. Of course, it is open for complaints to be made to Fiosrú, which is an independent party that can hear any allegations in respect of An Garda Síochána or members of An Garda Síochána. There are women in An Garda Síochána, Deputy …
Women in An Garda Síochána have every right to be believed as well. I am not making any comment on individuals here but I would just make that point. There was a strong refutation of the allegations that were made in this House in respect of members of An Garda Síochána, who have no right to defend themselves in this House or do not have that facility.
The Deputy asserted that they committed offences, which they would strenuously deny and the context would be strenuously denied. I have to say that. Fiosrú is there to follow that.
First, I thank Deputy McDonald for raising the issue and for reading out Nikita's letter to her, which clearly illustrates the very debilitating impact endometriosis can have on women. It is extremely debilitating, painful and the span of impacts are very wide. Regarding a phased response, this can be at GP, gynaecology or indeed specialist centre level.
There has been progress for endometriosis. Approximately €5 mi…
There has been significant progress in this area. That has to be acknowledged. More than 200 new patients were seen in Cork's endometriosis service from May to December last year. About 94% of women on the waiting list in that region are now seen within six months. As I said, more generally we are seeing improvement in terms of the Tallaght centre also. The Government is listening. In terms of the State, the Governme…
It is important to get the framework.
There are a number of issues there and I thank the Deputy for raising them. I fully understand the trauma that the family of Daniel Collins is going through in respect of the delay in getting surgery carried out. I do not want to go into the background of every individual case in terms of complexity of the case and so forth. My understanding is that there has been engagement. The assistant director of nursing lead fo…
Nobody is happy with this. I am certainly not happy with it and I know the Minister is not happy with it. The Minister is meeting with the board and the HSE regarding these issues. The two further reports, one of which is about dysplasia, need to come in. The three reports will be assessed in totality. We need - over time because we do not want to create any further disruption - to get to the bottom of this, and we w…
A lot of progress has been made and that does not get acknowledged. The HIQA report is a good report insofar as it clearly lays out what happened. What happened was wrong. It was incomprehensible. I said that yesterday. It is beyond belief that one would insert devices into a child that are not CE approved. It is very hard to comprehend that. That is unacceptable.
In terms of spinal procedures more generally, we are…
First, we will implement the recommendations of the HIQA report. Second, there is a task force on the broader issue of paediatric spinal surgery headed by Mark Connaughton with which the Minister will meet tomorrow. In terms of governance issues, we will engage with those from now on. Instead of waiting for further investigations we will proactively look at the structures and governance framework there and respond to…
We will meet and the Minister is open to meeting and engaging with the advocacy group. We would like to work through these issues with the advocacy groups and give our perspective as to what would lead to more immediate and quicker results that everybody wants in relation to all the issues the Deputy outlined in the question.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue which is very serious. I would make the overall point, and I do not want to go into the history of provision, that there has been dramatic exponential growth in the level of investment and provision both on the education side, in terms of special needs, and on the health side. On the education side, it is much more clearly to be seen in the transformative impacts over 20-odd …