As the Deputy can imagine, this is an issue I am very alert to and aware of in a very practical sense. My hometown is one that has seen an adverse impact from this change. Admittedly, many other areas have seen fares decrease. I do not think it is good that we are seeing one town nearly being pitted against another as a result of this fare structure. We have taken several measures to reduce public transport fares tha…
TDs / Simon Harris
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
566,209
words spoken in the chamber
566,201 as a minister, 8 as a TD
140
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 2,972 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 4 |
| January 2025 | 4 |
| February 2025 | 255 |
| March 2025 | 42 |
| April 2025 | 83 |
| May 2025 | 249 |
| June 2025 | 175 |
| July 2025 | 144 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 79 |
| October 2025 | 214 |
| November 2025 | 347 |
| December 2025 | 192 |
| January 2026 | 97 |
| February 2026 | 197 |
| March 2026 | 187 |
| April 2026 | 226 |
| May 2026 | 119 |
| June 2026 | 127 |
| July 2026 | 93 |
| August 2026 | 2 |
| September 2026 | 83 |
| October 2026 | 53 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 2,685 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Wicklow 29 November 2024 to now
- office Taoiseach 29 November 2024 to 22 January 2025
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Defence 23 January 2025 to 25 March 2025
- office Minister for Foreign Affairs 23 January 2025 to 25 March 2025
- office Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade 26 March 2025 to 18 November 2025
- office Minister for Defence 26 March 2025 to 18 November 2025
- office Minister for Finance 18 November 2025 to now
I thank Deputy Rice very much. I agree with him in general that we must come up with systems to drive forward infrastructure projects in a more timely manner. This is why we have set up the new infrastructure division of the Department of public expenditure and reform. I think we all hear this issue raised in our constituencies. To the people of Cork regarding the decisions we are taking, I would say that the Crawfor…
No.
I know we do not agree on much, but I thought one of the things we could agree on was our concern around the activities of some who are loosely termed the "far right" who turn up and intimidate and wear balaclavas and face masks. They stood outside your house and my house shouting and roaring and causing significant concern to people in terms of their safety. This is a sensible initiative in respect of a garda being …
I thank Deputy Collins. I watched in admiration how he managed to bring a Longford school back to a Cork connection. It was nicely done and I join him in welcoming the students Deputy Carrigy has brought to the Dáil today. They are very welcome and I hope they enjoy their day.
I thank Deputy Collins for his question and for raising this important issue. He and I know that HIQA is the statutory independent regulator.…
I thank Deputy Crowe for highlighting this issue. I take the issue of animal welfare seriously. Far too often in our country, we hear of the mistreatment of horses. We often see images on social media and elsewhere that can be extremely distressing. I think the Deputy's point is right. I have been asking about this for a while. The legislation on this is pretty robust, but perhaps there are issues relating to enforce…
I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of the cost of insurance and the impact that can have on consumers, businesses and so many parts of our lives, our economy and our society. I know that the Government is working its way through that issue at the moment relating to the PIAB guidelines. The Deputy has made a sensible suggestion to look at the length of time for the reviews, which I think is probably to…
I thank the Deputy for bringing that issue to my attention. I will certainly speak with the Minister for housing and ask that he reply to the Deputy directly. As the Deputy has rightly said, the Government took a funding decision with regard to this. We are living through a housing emergency. We need to see these projects move, so I will ask the Minister to come back to him.
I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I undertake to speak with the Minister for Justice and the Minister for further and higher education about this. From my memory, I know changes were made in the regulation and oversight of that sector. I also agree that students who come here are making an important contribution with the part-time work they carry out. I know many businesses in rural and urban Irela…
Deputy Currie makes an important point. How do we make sure we are hearing all of the voices we need to hear when making policy decisions? How do we be as inclusive as possible? I remember well that visit to Castleknock and being in a relatively new coffee shop with the Deputy for a lovely cup of coffee. What was it called?
I remember being in Melo and meeting the young woman running it, and indeed her mother. As is often the case in family businesses, everyone was pitching in. I remember them talking honestly to us about the costs of small business. We have made a number of decisions recently as a Government, not all of which are popular, to try to recognise that when we come up with a good idea in here, it is not us who have to pay fo…
First, let me reject entirely the assertion with regard to the Uisce Éireann funding model. The full trawl of documents, which I have no doubt committees and others will look at, will show that the €1 billion was additional funding. Indeed, those of us who were in government at the time very much remember that. Of course, it is true to say that and also to say the next thing, which is the broader point the Deputy is …
I thank Deputy O'Gorman. I acknowledge that he put a real emphasis on this in the previous Government. It is not simply about strong words, although I do think words matter, and I do think speaking out and speaking up matters. Quite frankly, there are a lot of countries not speaking out and speaking up the way Ireland is. Find me another European country that has referred to the actions of Israel in terms of war crim…
I thank Deputy Healy very much for raising the matter. When a court sitting changes in a town, it is not just the convenience for people in terms of accessing the court; it is the general footfall that can come into a town associated with a court sitting. I see that in my county of Wicklow as well. I will ask the Minister for Justice to get an update and to discuss this matter with the Courts Service with regard to C…
I thank Deputy McCormack. I offer my sincere sympathy to him and his family on their loss.
The Deputy is so right to highlight the importance of the electricity grid, both from an energy security and from a housing point of view. We quite rightly talk in this House about the emergency that is housing - there is no doubt about that - but the key enabler to moving forward on that emergency is water, wastewater and ene…
I thank Deputy Burke for raising this issue and for vocalising very strongly the absolute frustration of his constituents in and around Blackpool. I know this has been going on for an extraordinarily long period of time. The Deputy is of course correct that on 17 April the OPW submitted the final supplementary information and those updated environmental surveys he referenced to the Minister for public expenditure, in…
I thank Deputy Guirke. I will ask the Minister for housing and the Minister of State with responsibility for planning to give consideration to the point he makes about the role of section 5 and the appropriate use of it in the context of what he has outlined. I would like to make two points on IPAS and migration accommodation. First, there has been too much discussion only on accommodation. We also have to discuss a …
That is, of course, not our policy. I thank the Deputy for raising issues in relation to Belmullet, the Belmont Hotel in Knock and St. Mary's school in Ballina. I will ask the Minister for Justice and the Minister of State for migration to come back to the Deputy on that. Broadly, on the issue of communications around migration, we need to do more. We recently discussed this very issue at a Cabinet committee meeting …
Sorry, that is a fair question. In relation to the issue of planning, I am truthfully not sure in relation to that but I will get an answer to the Deputy directly.
I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. While I am not aware of the specific details, I join the Deputy in sending my best wishes to that member of An Garda Síochána. As the Deputy says, all of these incidents are harsh and real reminders of the dangers that gardaí face when they put themselves in harm's way to keep the rest of us safe. I am very grateful to all members of An Garda Síochána for their service.
I am a big fan of the…
Absolutely.
I would be delighted to do so.
I agree with the Deputy about recruitment and retention. We can have all the investment plans, and we need to in the Defence Forces, but the men and women in the Defence Forces constitute its most important resource. Given that this is a country with full employment and very skilled individuals work in the Defence Forces, how we recruit in the first instance and then crucially retain them is a very fair question rais…
We are not.
I was not talking about fighter jets but was asked about a question about them at an Army barracks. I said I want to get to level of ambition, LAO, 3, which talks about that degree of air cover. We need a better understanding of what happens and the capabilities in our skies and seas. The Deputy is right that the key to being able to activate any of this is having the personnel to operate any such infrastructural cap…