I come from an era where when I came out of college in the 1980s, it was a disaster. There was 17% unemployment. A lot of people left the country. I still have that in my head. It is deeply embedded in my consciousness. I never thought we would see these days when we have close to full employment. That can change, so we have to be competitive all the time. Maybe that is the difference between this side of the House a…
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
Deputy Heneghan spoke about plug-in solar. I hear him loud and clear. I have been engaging proactively - I was going to use a different word - with the Minister in respect of this. He told me it was imminent. I think it went to the ESB, which was meant to come back, because the ESB is worried about making sure it is done safely and in accordance with proper procedure, but it is important. Plug-in solar, like solar in…
We would not have PhD researchers if we did not have the tax credits to bring in the R and D investment in the first place, along with our investment in public universities, which is substantial under the INSPIRE programme and the earlier programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI, of the late 1990s that I introduced. We created, with Science Foundation Ireland, a research ecosystem in this country, wh…
The tax credits are important to the companies to sustain investment in the country and to bring new investment that will benefit people.
I turn to Deputy Conway-Walsh, who raised the cost-benefit analysis. Various cost-benefit analyses have been done. There was a recent KPMG report that did not find favour with everybody, but I am open to continuing analysis of the situation.
Deputy Byrne raised the AI summit. It …
We are investing in rail, very substantially, across the length and breadth of the country.
Did I?
I offer my sincere apologies to Deputy O'Gorman. The question was on the battery e-cars. Germany and France are very concerned about their automotive industry. There are real serious issues for Germany and France. There has to be a degree of realism about that. To be fair to both countries, they are supporting emissions trading system, ETS, 1 and ETS 2, despite huge opposition from other countries on the east against…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 26 to 45, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on children and education oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of children and education. It receives detailed reports on identified policy areas such as child poverty and well-being, and education. The membership of the Cabinet committee on children and education includes the Taoiseach an…
Cad a dúirt an Teachta faoin tender?
I thank all the Deputies for their comments. In response to Deputy O’Gorman, some schools make facilities available for after-school services. I will talk to the Minister for children and the Minister for education about this. Very often, what happens is that those in the governance of an individual primary school or second level school are paranoid about who minds the school, who looks after the school, who locks up…
First of all, I would like to take a moment on the evolving situation in Waterford. I know that Deputies from across the House will have been united in shock, and indeed horror, as the news emerged this morning of the early morning fire at a house in Birchwood estate in Waterford. As Deputy McDonald said, two adults and two children have been killed in the fire, with another two children with very serious injuries be…
-----as creating a platform, along with the €1.2 billion in provision, for negotiations.
It is a good platform for negotiations to begin. We invite everybody in to discuss it.
We have had ongoing contact and meetings with the trade union movement. The Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, for example, is one such regular mechanism by which we engage with congress and trade union leaders. We circulated some ideas to the trade union movement. I offered an enhanced social dialogue earlier this year to the trade union movement, given the geopolitical uncertainty facing the world, the wars that…
You are asking me? I think you might be asking the wrong person.
What I would say is this. We are open for discussions. We have invited in the unions to talk-----
-----and the Minister for public expenditure said every issue that they have raised is on the table.
I do not think the Deputy was listening to what I just said. We had been engaged with the trade union movement. We did engage. The platform for negotiations clearly exists. The Deputy knows that too. Provision is made to increase public service pay next year and the year after. Those are the facts. We have cut taxes for workers, which was a key issue that was raised by the trade union movement. We have cut childcare …
The Deputy has not put one idea before me. It is very simple: come in and talk. It is a very simple invitation to the unions: come in and talk about a new public service pay deal. We have made financial provision and we have taken significant measures to enhance the quality of life of workers. We still accept there are people who are under pressure - we know that from the cost-of-living crisis - but there is only one…
I think the Deputy's assertions are wrong in terms of what we did in the budget. It was a substantial budget by any yardstick. The tax package was about €1.3 billion. Basically, we increased the entry point for the higher rate of income tax by €2,500. That is significant for many workers who are paying the higher rate of tax far too early in their incomes. We have increased the main tax credits by €125 and the home c…
That is true. That is true and, again, it is not our statistics. All of this can be mediated. It is new money.
A total of €1.2 billion is being provided. That is new money. It is in the Estimate and is provided for in the budget. The Deputy, as leader of the Labour Party, knows full well that the basis exists for negotiations, given what happened in the budget, that €1.2 billion is provided and that we have increase…
There are two things to say. I fully appreciate the role of the Deputy's party in the labour movement. I delivered a paper at the Irish Labour History Society last Saturday morning outlining Fianna Fáil's relationship with labour since the formation of the party, which, by the way, has been a very constructive and proactive one. I invite Deputy Bacik to read the paper because it will give her a sense of where I have …
As I said, I come from a very strong trade union background and have full respect for workers.
I offered an enhanced social dialogue but it was not taken up. "Not yet" was the response. I think people were waiting for the budget. I think the unions wanted to see what was in the budget as well. There was engagement. The budget focused on the cost of living. That was the main issue as far as we were concerned. Through…
Normally, the scenario would be much different when a strike is called in the manner it has been called.
First, I said I will negotiate with trade union leaders, or the Government will and-----