I met with the President von der Leyen last week in Paris on the margins of the meeting on Ukraine. At the EU summit the previous week, I also met her to discuss the matter. On Sunday, I had a phone call with President von der Leyen to discuss it further. As stated, we have not had the EU's substantive response yet because the tariffs are only due to be announced tomorrow.
On bourbon, those were already measures tha…
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
198
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 6,461 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 Tánaiste has been in touch with Secretary of State Lutnick. That communication will continue.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is fair to say that over the past three decades, there have been very extensive inquiries into sexual abuse in this country in almost all settings and it continues. We have to evaluate that experience as well. There have been very extensive inquiries. There has been horrific abuse, which has visited trauma on thousands of people in different settings, including in healthc…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I pay tribute to An Garda Síochána for the outstanding work it does to keep us all safe and protect society and our citizens. I pay tribute to the Deputy’s family on their distinguished contribution to An Garda Síochána. We are recruiting more and more gardaí. As we recruit more, we will be in a better position to deploy gardaí to Kildare and indeed farther afield.
This has been an ongoing issue. I am aware that Deputy Paul McAuliffe led on this, and legislation was passed at the time. Implementation is very important. I will ask the Minister for Justice to engage with the Garda Commissioner. As the Deputy knows, the deployment of gardaí is an operational matter. We are told that repeatedly. If you establish more units, you reduce the number of gardaí available for broader duti…
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. My understanding is that number has been reduced, but 9,000 still waiting is too many. What happened was that the scheme was expanded to accommodate everybody. When the Minister paid out what the Deputy suggested, he made advance payments. Some of them were over what people might have been entitled to, and then people were concerned about having to make payments back. In any …
The situation in relation to Daniel is unacceptable in many respects. I have read the article. My understanding is that there is engagement, and the clinical nurse specialist is engaging with the family today.
No, but there has been engagement. My understanding is that there is a pathway, but I would obviously prefer if the team in CHI communicated with the family. My understanding is that prior to coming in this afternoon, progress was made in respect of the case. I will follow up on this, and I know the Minister is here as well. There is a pathway, hopefully in the shorter term. In the first instance, the clinical nurse …
More and more hotels are decanting in respect of IPAS and the beneficiaries of temporary protection, BOTPs, over the last while. Obviously, we will do everything we possibly can to increase numbers. There are significant issues globally in terms of confidence in the world economy - that may be a factor playing out - but again, it is early days yet to be writing off the tourism industry. Our tourism industry is very r…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 13, inclusive, together.
The National Emergency Co-ordination Group is the central Government platform, established as part of the response to a threatened or ongoing national level emergency, under the strategic emergency management framework. All Government Departments, local authorities, emergency services and agencies are represented on the NECG.
The Department of Housing, …
Are we eating into the time for the next questions?
Deputies have asked a lot of questions. I welcome them all. To reply to Deputy Dolan on the review and the response, there will be a review. At the most recent meeting of the Government task force on emergency planning on 11 March, it was agreed that a review of the response to Storm Éowyn would be submitted to Government by the summer. That will be led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and …
More recent plans are much more towards broadleaf trees and a proper mixture. We need commercial forestry as well. Deputy Murphy called it for-profit forestry. We need timber. Timber-frame housing is more climate friendly than cement. We need a better balance. We cannot just ridicule forestry for profit. We need a commercial forestry sector. We also need greater biodiversity and varied plantations of trees. I am very…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 to 24, inclusive, together.
The programme for Government, Securing Ireland's Future, sets out a number of commitments relating to our national security and defence. The programme acknowledges that we live in a time of geopolitical upheaval and challenges to democracy and the international rules-based order with threats and challenges arising from a dynamic global geopolitical land…
I thank all the Deputies who raised the issue. I will make the fundamental point that the establishment of the national security council is about creating a proper structure to ensure democratic accountability on national security matters, and proper co-ordination between all Departments and between An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces.
As Taoiseach, I will chair it, and also participating will be the Ministers …
They do not have to protest at all. We had protests a year or two ago that were quite violent.
I am not saying the Mothers Against Genocide protesters were doing that; they were not. However, everybody in this House railed against the Garda for not having operational procedures to ensure access to, and egress from, Leinster House.
I did not interrupt the Deputies. Protestors do not have to block the gates of Leinster House.
What happened then was the Garda gave a direction under the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act. That is what the Garda formally did. There was no physical engagement; gardaí just gave a direction. I am informed that the individuals were given a period of time to adhere to the direction. That direction was not complied with and 11 people were then arrested for offences contrary to section 8 of the Criminal Justice (P…
It is a horrible assertion. It is a demonstrably false assertion and a misreading that is absolutely wrong. It should not be made.
Deputies complain from time to time about assertions made about them and others. That assertion is very fundamentally wrong. It speaks to a kind of philosophy and mindset that is about how they can blame the Government or Irish parliamentarians for what is going on in Gaza and not the Israeli Government.
Those Deputies' approach always seems to be, "Let us blame the Irish Government", rather than putting the blame where the fault lies. They are attempting to drive a wedge between the Irish people and the Irish public representatives who are not of their persuasion.
I move:
That Dáil Éireann has confidence in the Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy T.D.
As we begin this debate, I hope members of the Opposition will allow others to be heard and will not engage in the systematic barracking we have seen in recent months. This is an extremely serious debate that goes to the heart of a range of fundamental issues about how this democratic Parliament operates. It is profoundly regrettabl…
Over the past 106 years, the Standing Orders and structures of daily business of Dáil Éireann have changed regularly and often quite radically. There has never been a requirement for all parties to agree a change before it can be implemented. There has never before been a debate as long and as disruptive as there has been on these changes - changes that will mean the Irish Opposition will retain a greater share of sp…
-----has been seen here every day.