We are very clear on upholding the international rule of law. This bombing campaign is not in accordance with a UN mandate. I totally accept the Deputy's bona fides. She has been consistent on Iran, but the international rules-based order has been powerless to do anything about Iran, if we are honest, over a long period. That does raise questions. It is not a new question; it is a decades-old question in terms of int…
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
St. Patrick's Day will come and go. It is the more enduring sustainable relationship between the US and Ireland that is important, but park that for a moment. St. Patrick's Day will come and go. There will be many of those, but the relationship is much deeper and much more substantial than that. Let us be honest about that too.
The Deputy referenced the UN Security Council. By virtue of the composition post Second W…
Please. The alternative is a much broader UN Security Council without the veto of these three powers. That is the obvious way. Africa should be represented.
South America should be represented. People who can make a contribution-----
Vast populations of the world are not represented on the Security Council and all we are getting is veto after veto after veto. We cannot get peacekeeping missions approved by the UN Security Council. One of the most sustainable peacekeeping missions that we have been involved in is Lebanon and, at the behest of the US, the Security Council has put a deadline on that for next year. Those are the realities of a UN Sec…
Ireland believes fundamentally in international rule of law. We are a multilateral nation and all our work over the past number of years has been dedicated to those principles in every single form that we attend under the auspices of the United Nations, the European Union or, indeed, other international organisations. International law is not being adhered to and has not been for quite some time by many actors. That …
In terms of the energy situation, from anecdotal accounts, it would appear there is a degree of price-gouging is going on. In our view, both the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and Competition and Consumer Protection Commission should closely monitor what is happening and people who have complaints should immediately complain to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the CRU. The working …
In terms of the overall energy situation, the Deputy is correct in saying that there is no necessity for home heating oil to increase, given that many people will have had that oil in stock and, indeed, much of that oil comes via Britain and Norway, not from the Middle East. That has been the source for quite a long time.
The Deputy has conflated a lot of issues. General revenue - all revenues, for example from ener…
-----because around €553 million of the carbon tax is going towards retrofitting.
Retrofitting helps people to reduce their bills on a sustainable basis into the future. Third, that would be pulling the rug from under farmers who will benefit this year to the tune of €173 million from the carbon tax revenue in the form of agri-environmental schemes in terms of the ACRES programme. I argued for a carbon tax at the beginning of the 2020 Government on the basis that it would provide us with funding t…
Actually, the Deputy asked me in the first iteration – he can check it – to scrap it. That is what he said, so it is not a temporary limitation. He opposed it anyway.
Then why is he trying to pretend? He has opposed it from the beginning. He is just duplicitous in terms of his approach.
The Deputy will say whatever matters on the day to advance his position. He thinks electorally and politically. That is just what he does.
Could I just make the point that we did reduce VAT on electricity and gas bills from 13% to 9%-----
-----and we have extended that out to 2030. As I said, we have extended fuel allowance to 26% of the population. As I said, as this situation unfolds, we will keep this under review. We have always responded to people’s needs, as we did during the Ukrainian war crisis. We have to do so in a sustainable basis. That is our commitment - we will do it on a sustainable basis.
It is a matter of very serious concern that a landlord would behave in this manner. The reports were raised over the weekend with regard to the serving of 36 notices of termination by that landlord. The Minister, Deputy Browne, asked the Residential Tenancies Board to engage with the affected tenants and with Wexford County Council to ensure the impacted tenants' rights are protected. He has also been in touch with W…
Of course, these eviction notices came before the new rules came into place-----
I should not have to explain that to the Deputy. She should know that and she did not acknowledge that.
The new laws provide far greater and stronger protection to tenants than the old system did and Deputy Bacik was the very person who alleged that we ignored the Housing Commission. The Housing Commission said that the rent protection zones, RPZs-----
-----could not stay as they were and that we needed to reform them. We bought in the Housing Agency to come up with proposals. It did so and we have taken the decisions to reform. The Deputy will always sit on the fence on this one because electorally nothing else will suit her or suffice. That is the truth.
Deputy Bacik calls for reform but when reform happens and decisions are taken - none of this is easy because it is a complex landscape - she will continue to sit on the fence.
What happened in Wexford is unacceptable.
The Minister sent the Residential Tenancies Board down.
The Deputy makes all sorts of accusations against the Government, which are unfounded. She claims the moral high ground on everything. I have met with survivors from Bessborough and many did not want the forensic exhumation or examination of the site. They want a memorial and they want it to be respected. My own view is that it would have been far more preferable if-----
I did not interrupt the Deputy.