We need to ascertain where that 45% is going because there are many aspects of the economic model of every country that requires alumina. The material is used for making medical devices and in the food processing and automotive sectors. Obviously, the EU is a very significant importer of alumina as it is a critical raw material. It is important to put that on record.
I refute the statement that we were slow to comme…
TDs / Peter Burke
Peter Burke
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment
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
99,195
words spoken in the chamber
99,195 as a minister, 0 as a TD
306
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 403 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
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| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 20 |
| March 2025 | 1 |
| April 2025 | 16 |
| May 2025 | 26 |
| June 2025 | 15 |
| July 2025 | 3 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 27 |
| October 2025 | 4 |
| November 2025 | 22 |
| December 2025 | 0 |
| January 2026 | 61 |
| February 2026 | 25 |
| March 2026 | 1 |
| April 2026 | 26 |
| May 2026 | 1 |
| June 2026 | 62 |
| July 2026 | 29 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 12 |
| October 2026 | 52 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 360 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Longford-Westmeath 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment 23 January 2025 to 1 June 2025
- office Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment 2 June 2025 to now
As the Deputy said, jobs must be saved. It is hard to reconcile that with his further statement in relation to Russia. We have to be clear that products are being exported to Russia that are being used in the Russian military complex, action will have to be taken. There are no easy answers to this. There are a huge number of jobs involved. The plant is responsible for a critical raw material. Any action would have bi…
I thank the Deputy for this very important question. In April last year, I obtained Government approval for the general scheme of the short-term letting and tourism Bill. Once enacted, this Bill will provide a statutory framework for regulating the short-term letting sector, including the establishment of a national register.
This register, which has been broadly welcomed by the tourism sector, will be implemented a…
I know the Deputy has done a lot of work on this matter. In towns with a population of less than 20,000 in areas of the south and west coast where it is not viable to build a hotel and where short-term lets for tourism are needed, we will have a simplified administrative process for providers who have been in operation for more than seven years. We have issued a planning statement which will have a presumption for th…
I have had significant negotiations with the Minister, Deputy James Browne, to achieve a balance. Obviously, it is critical that we have accommodation in our cities, where there is acute pressure on housing units - we are in a housing crisis - and that those units are made available for wider society. Equally, in areas where the tourism sector is very important, and tourism drives economic activity in rural Ireland, …
I thank Deputy Brennan for his question on a very important sector for the Irish economy. Tokenisation, the process whereby an underlying asset or pool of assets, tangible or intangible, is converted into digital tokens that act as its proxy, could fundamentally reform how capital markets operate, enabling real-time trades, increasing transparency and liquidity, expediting clearing and ultimately providing for atomic…
I am very much aware of how important the funds sector is to our employment landscape. Over 60,000 jobs and, as the Deputy pointed out, trillions in assets are domiciled here. As I said, the Department of Finance has the lead policy responsibility for the area. Distributed ledger technology, as the Deputy pointed out, provides a game changer for the sector. It records transactions, and transactions that are recorded …
I am constantly engaging with stakeholders. Indeed, I meet many of them during my weekly business with the Department. I have had some very exciting job announcements in the financial services sector and have discussed this issue in detail with it and in relation to the work the Department of Finance has undertaken. It has been present for some of those announcements, so we are very much aware of the opportunity here…
I thank the Deputy for a very important question relating to tourism, which is our largest indigenous sector. The programme for Government includes a clear commitment to support and expand food and drink tourism, reflecting its importance in shaping visitor experiences. Food and beverage accounts for approximately 34% of all visitor expenditure. A New Era for Irish Tourism, the Government's national tourism policy, f…
Critically, as the Deputy pointed out, the Louth strategy for tourism up to 2031 has key performance indicators, KPIs, to measure exactly the performance and ensure our objectives are realised. I took the view in our tourism plan that if it cannot be measured, it cannot be managed. That is why we have 71 objectives with clear KPIs attached to each. That is why Tourism Ireland has approximately €71 million for 2026 fo…
I could not agree more with the Deputy and the proposals she is bringing forward. I look forward to working with her to grow our tourism sector. I particularly look forward to working with our businesses. There are 46,000 businesses across the country that provide a genuine, authentic céad míle fáilte. We will come forward in September or October with a number of supports, capital grants, for attractions and business…
First, there is no policy change in this area. My Department’s responsibilities centre around the control of exports of dual-use and military items under EU and national legislation. Controls on the export of dual-use items are administered by my Department in accordance with EU Regulation 2021/821 of the European Parliament and the Council setting up an EU regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assi…
As I said, there has been no policy change. The law is clear in the Control of Exports Act 2023, as set out by these Houses of which the Deputy is a Member, and in our European obligations under the framework and the eight criteria that have been established.
Ireland has been firm and strong in recognising the State of Palestine. We have supported the people of Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency…
Very clearly, it is because it is in compliance with the law and with the criteria set down by the EU. We do not assess applications on the basis of made-up criteria. The criteria are grounded in the EU framework, which has eight clear measures, and the Control of Exports Act set down by this House in 2023. As I said in my substantive response, we have to satisfy ourselves that the end user will not bring any uninten…
I thank Deputy Moynihan for his question. My Department is continually monitoring the labour market and the impact of artificial intelligence. We have a number of relevant pieces of research I can cite, including research from the expert group on future skills needs published last year, How AI is transforming the Irish Labour Market. This work highlights the speed at which Ireland is moving in relation to AI, noting …
We are working very closely with all our skills partners and enterprise agencies to ensure training is being delivered in the key sectors that are at risk, namely, graduates, as well as particular cohorts of the employment market like ICT, professional services and legal and financial services. We have a huge amount of skills upgrading to do in those areas. Take the IDA for example. We set out an ambition to train 40…
We have updated our digital and AI strategy, which has 80 deliverables, while working right across our skill partners to ensure our citizens are getting that transformational training that makes those jobs sticky. We also have done a huge amount of work on establishing our national skills observatory with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and his Department of further and higher education to profile those skills and to e…
I thank Deputy Doherty for his question on an area which is very close to the concern of the Government, which is energy affordability in our country and the ability of households to pay. Something the Government keeps a very close track of is those who are in arrears for 90 days. It is a critical component that shows stress over a period of time.
I want to outline what the Government is doing to really reduce costs…
We are acting right now at a record level in the economy, supporting people at the fuel pumps and through reductions in electricity VAT rates. We are supporting people right across the economy to ensure they are not cut off. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has met with all the energy companies and given the Government an assurance that anyone who works with energy companies in relation to their bill will be sup…
We have always acted in the past and we will continue to do so to protect the most vulnerable in society.
I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan for his very important question. I fully share the concern he has raised. That is why we have set about conducting an investigation in the Department of enterprise to impartially ascertain the evidence, working with the European Commission and the Swedish authorities, which came forward with additional evidence in the past ten days. We are also working with Aughinish Alumina to try to …
I will. I said that we are carrying out an investigation to get the evidence. As a Minister, I cannot make a decision without impartial evidence before me. We are working with the European Commission, which is the competent authority in this regard, to essentially recommend sanctions to the Department of enterprise and the Government. We are the enforcement authority. We carry out the execution of the sanction but th…
Yes, we have spoken to the Ukrainian Government and we have asked it for the evidence it possesses regarding the allegation that is before us. It is currently engaging with the Department in relation to that. That is why I said our investigation is very wide-ranging. It is a genuine investigation to get the evidence. I am working with the Swedish authorities on evidence that has come forward as well. We need to go th…
I thank Deputy Murphy for his question. I am a firm believer in Sláintecare. It is one time when the Oireachtas came together and charted how health policy evolves irrespective of the change of Governments that we have within the country.
First of all, the Deputy is quoting from a leaked report, which I have not seen and have no knowledge of. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, commissioned a report - …
First of all, I reiterate I have not seen the report. I do not know when it will be completed. I do not know what version the Deputy has that has been leaked. I do not know whether the Minister has received it yet. The Minister for Health commissioned this report and asked for an investigation into the practices at CHI to ensure there was equity of treatment of patients. The Minister asked for this and the Deputy is …