They have not heard anything. I will follow up because it is now June. If people want to get enrolled by September something has to happen. I will raise it with the Minister of State, Michael Moynihan and the Minister, Hildegarde Naughton.
Deputy O'Rourke said the meeting to consider the drug for Duchenne is tomorrow. I hope we will get a positive outcome from that and can make progress. There has been a fair degree…
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
Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Tá an-chuid déanta againn. Gan amhras, tá i bhfad níos mó le déanamh againn maidir le daoine le míchumas. Tagraím don infheistíocht atá curtha isteach againn, go háirithe sa cháinaisnéis anuraidh. Ba é an méadú is mó riamh in aon cháinaisnéis.
The investment in disability has been very strong. The last budget saw one of the largest ever increases in disability services, up …
We will have places for children next September. As Deputy McDonald knows, with the decision of the early entry portal, many more applied than was anticipated and 6,000 children who are within existing mainstream schools applied for special class status, which will be provided for and very substantial additional resources have been allocated to meet that need.
No one can deny the extraordinary and very significant investment that has been made - rightly so - in special education.
It is quite significant.
The Deputy has an awful habit of interrupting. I have never interrupted her once in anything she says.
I beg your pardon?
Okay, we will leave it. We will leave it.
I recognise the issues facing people with disabilities. The first thing I did in government was to set up a special disability unit within my Department to prioritise and drive delivery of services and to improve them in every single Government Department and in a whole-of-government approach. We have established a Cabinet subcommittee on disability to deal with all aspects of public services and departmental respons…
We will have 26,000 special needs assistants by the beginning of the next school year. There will be 26,000 of them and I could go on.
We need to do more and we will do more, as we have with the school therapy services.
It is not delayed.
That is great.
I reject very strongly the Deputy's assertion that we are not taking climate seriously. Her reference to the Green Party not being in government is false.
We are doing things differently because there is a problem, which the Deputy referenced in terms of the Critical Infrastructure Bill. One of the issues is the fundamentalist, purist and perfect is always the enemy of the good. We will achieve far more on climate than perhaps the Labour Party approach or, at times, the Green Party approach because we need to bring people with us. That consensus has broken down. I can …
It has been. The Deputy needs to face up to it and not be naive. At every turn, significant infrastructure and even infrastructure that will improve the climate has faced challenges because environmental considerations have been weaponised. That is a problem and a challenge. It is a problem all over Europe, by the way. It is all over Europe. That is why some of the renewable energy directives, REDs, were brought in a…
We need an honest debate. Let us deal with the facts. Ireland now has the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years.
No. Hold on. Look at what else has happened in the 35 years. That is in the context of an increase in population of 1.5 million, more than 1 million new homes and over 1 million more vehicles on the road. Those are dramatic statistics. We are growing as a population. We were relatively under-populated historically but our population is now growing dramatically. With 1.5 million more people, 1 million additional homes…
-----and we have offshore wind proposals in planning.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I have made inquiries. The issue he raised did happen. It is unacceptable from my perspective, particularly given the enormity of the issue for the individual householder concerned, that she should have received two emails with completely opposite positions on the one day. My understanding is that the chair of the board accepts that an error was made and that it should not h…
I have to defer to the Minister. I will ask him to communicate with the Deputy directly in respect of the matter. I am always loath to give precise timelines on behalf of other Ministers but I will make sure that this is followed up because commitments have been given on it. We will make sure that it gets done.
I thank the Deputy for raising what is an important issue for people in the mid-west more generally. I acknowledge that the Deputy has acknowledged some progress in respect of developments in health services in the mid-west. He paid tribute to the chief executive officer and the team there at UHL regarding that progress, which was needed. We need to continue to work to enhance services, particularly the quality of se…
I have always been a strong advocate for investment in Nenagh, Ennis and Clonmel-----
-----which has benefited from significant investment, but that is in a different area from Nenagh and Ennis, which is part of the mid-west provision of services.
The most recent 90-bed block was delivered on time. Along with the investment, we need constant reform as to how we provide services. There has been a lot of investment in health services in the past five years, which needs to be acknowledged. There has to …
I thank the Deputy and commend him on the work he is doing on this issue. It is a particular focus for him. He identified it as a key priority for him, on his election to Dáil Éireann, and for inclusion in the programme for Government. The private wires Bill for which the Minister has received sanction from the Government is priority legislation. The intention is to publish a draft Bill in the coming months - I think…