My number one priority is to make sure that every child has a school place come this September - not just this September but next September and beyond - and that we have the right structures in place such that children, families and parents do not have to fight as they have done in the past.
I am very much aware of the situation in Dungarvan, County Waterford. I have been working with my colleague the Minister of St…
TDs / Helen McEntee
Helen McEntee
Minister for DefenceMinister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
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
245,309
words spoken in the chamber
245,286 as a minister, 23 as a TD
321
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 806 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 58 |
| March 2025 | 1 |
| April 2025 | 69 |
| May 2025 | 45 |
| June 2025 | 32 |
| July 2025 | 38 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 8 |
| October 2025 | 13 |
| November 2025 | 74 |
| December 2025 | 40 |
| January 2026 | 2 |
| February 2026 | 28 |
| March 2026 | 32 |
| April 2026 | 2 |
| May 2026 | 161 |
| June 2026 | 34 |
| July 2026 | 65 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 50 |
| October 2026 | 54 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 727 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Meath East 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Education 23 January 2025 to 1 May 2025
- office Minister for Education and Youth 2 May 2025 to 18 November 2025
- office Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade 18 November 2025 to now
- office Minister for Defence 18 November 2025 to now
I thank our ambulance workers and our paramedics for the unbelievable job they do in keeping us safe. This issue came to light only recently, and my understanding is that there is a review or the Revenue Commissioners are looking at this. Nobody should be disadvantaged or unable to do their job because of the situation the Deputy has outlined. My understanding is that a ruling is expected soon from the Revenue Commis…
I welcome the students from Tara Hill to the Dáil.
I absolutely agree with the Deputy on the need to support our own sector here at home. I have a brother who is very much involved in it, and the work they do and the content they produce is phenomenal.
As regards the details, this was brought to Cabinet just this week, and the Minister was clear that while there will be a directive in the legislation allowing a Min…
To be very clear on this, there are no aircraft carriers landing here with any type of ammunition.
It is not something that is allowed. It has never been approved.
It is not happening. We need to be very careful about saying that this is an absolute fact.
My understanding is that, as the Deputy has rightly outlined, we do not have a national quota on this. At the time when this was being divvied up, there was not a track record of commercial fishing for bluefin tuna. Obviously, that has changed. What we have now is a small bluefin tuna bycatch quota which is available to Ireland, primarily for use in our important Northern Ireland albacore tuna fishery and Celtic Sea …
I do not think anybody thinks mistreatment of any animal, whether an animal in the food chain or an animal in our home or a pet, is acceptable. We need to make sure that where there are clear laws and procedures that should be in place, they are adhered to.
As the daughter of a farmer, I would say the vast majority of farmers comply with these regulations and treat their animals better than they might treat anybody …
My understanding is HSE South West has developed a business case and that has been presented to the HSE and the Department of Health. I also understand it is a supported plan, so there are conversations and engagement happening to see how this plan can be funded and how it can be progressed for all the reasons the Deputy has outlined, including that we provide that support and that resource to people who need it most…
I thank the Deputy. I too acknowledge and recognise our entire teaching profession, our teachers, our special education teachers, our SNAs and the entire school staff who support children every day and those who support children with special educational needs. It is for the reasons outlined by the Deputy that I wrote to the Teaching Council recently to ensure we put a process in place such that any person coming thro…
I thank the Deputy. Having been one of the leads in the negotiations for the programme for Government, I know the conversation on this was very clear. We need to support Dublin Airport but we also need to support our regional airports. We need to ensure people living outside our capital city in our rural towns and villages have access to perhaps not the same level, but to an increased level, of air connectivity. That…
I thank the Deputy. I do not think we should compare or pit any student against another. It is important every child has access to education and can progress. It is important also to acknowledge that a huge number of young people can access grants - there has in fact been an increase over the years in the number of young people who can access SUSI - but also the investment that has gone into higher education to reduc…
I thank the Deputy. There is a record €6 billion being invested in all our different housing policies and only in recent weeks the Minister for housing secured additional funding, so we are doing everything we can to support not just the development of new homes, the bringing back of homes into stock and the development of social housing, but also to support every person to be able to purchase or to stay in the home …
No.
The Government and I as Minister for Education are committed to increasing funding to support all schools. This has already seen a €30 million permanent increase in capitation funding to assist schools now and in the longer term with increased day-to-day running costs through budget 2025. This represents an increase of approximately 12% on current standard rates and enhanced rates and is on top of the circa 9.2% incr…
I have also spoken to teachers and principals and I fully accept we need to do more. There is a clear commitment in the programme for Government to do more. However, the Deputy has to accept that, in the past two years alone, there has been a 22% increase in capitation across primary and post-primary as well as an enhanced rate for special schools or where support is needed in DEIS schools. I am not saying that is go…
With all due respect, the Deputy's party called for multiple different variations of €150 million. We have to work within a budget and we have to make sure we prioritise where the need is most. I fully accept the need is here in education and that we need to provide more, but there is no school that will be let go to the wall because funding is not being provided. I cannot be any clearer than that. I also commend our…
If we start allocating budgets outside of the budget every month, then we do not have a budget.
We have to work within the budget that has been provided, and what has been provided is 22% of an increase. I am absolutely committed to providing more. It could not be any clearer in the programme for Government. There is no school that will be let go to the wall because there is no funding being provided. We will always provide funding to schools.
I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue and something we all have a responsibility to try to deal with to support our young people, to educate them and to protect them insofar as possible from many of the challenges they face online. In respect of the mobile phones during school time, the pouches were just one of a number of measures that have been recommended and will be rolled out. It is not m…
So much work is being done. I mentioned Webwise and the different programmes that are being rolled out. The change in the curriculum has taken a number of years but it is now being rolled out and will be mandatory for leaving cert students. The ban that has initially come into our primary schools is absolutely fantastic but we all have a role here. There is more that schools can do, such as through the ICT grant, whi…
To outline the action to date, phones have been banned in schools, and in primary schools in particular, which is only right. Young people are still being educated through the reform of the RSE programme. On post primary, a directive was issued by the Minister for Education urging schools to have restrictive mobile phone use in place, and we can see that being implemented in many of the schools.
Most important, the …
The SPHE programme is being updated so everything will be up to date, and young people are being asked what is important to them and what they should be discussing. Only last week, I launched a new programme in arts, which has been taken up by about a third of schools at the post-primary level. This is an overall health and well-being programme that brings everything into one place. It can be accessed by teachers and…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue.
At the outset, we have to ensure we have the capacity there for any of these types of new application systems to work. My Department has a very significant capital programme, which is providing additional capacity around the country. Since 2020, €5.8 billion has been invested in our schools, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. Additionally, we a…
I assure the Deputy we will be building on the two pilots I have mentioned for secondary schools, taking lessons and experience from them, and starting a pilot for the next school year, 2026-27, with the hope and ambition to roll it out further. We need to make sure we have the ability to share as much data as possible so all of our school systems are updated and all the schools in a particular area are involved and …