I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for the constructive way he is engaging on this issue. I am very conscious that this is still a very real issue in his own constituency. While we talk about the next steps, and he rightly talks about the lessons learned, I am conscious we are still seeing in many parts of the west and north west a significant number of people - around 12,000 premises - without electricity. It is down from 1…
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
The Deputy is speaking a lot of common sense on this. The Government is going to engage with the local authorities regarding generators for communities. One of the most obvious things we should be doing is making sure there are more generators available in communities for when things like this happen. The Deputy is right that nobody can storm but we have to be better prepared in terms of resilience and infrastructure…
I will come back to the Deputy on each of the specific matters, including on the agriculture point he made.
Yes, we will provide that mandate. Deputy Kerrane is right to highlight this issue. These health and social care workers and others carry out an invaluable service. Our health, social care and disability services are so reliant on it. I would point out that we have made several advanced steps on this issue, including the October 2023 agreement the Deputy referenced. State agencies have worked with service providers t…
I thank Deputy Bacik. I agree with her comments regarding the dire humanitarian catastrophe. That phrase does not even capture the sense of destruction and loss of life, of home and of dignity that people have experienced in Gaza. I think all of us are united in working on that. I want to see what more the Government can do to help with the upscaling of humanitarian aid and assistance to the people of Palestine now a…
I thank the Deputy for raising this extraordinarily important issue. It is one we have worked on across the House during the last period of time, including publishing an ambitious domestic, sexual and gender-based violence strategy, which was led by my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and establishing a new agency, called Cuan, to drive this zero-tolerance approach. When I was the Minister for Justice, I had …
It must be highly insulting to Independent TDs who are democratically elected in their own right, just like Deputy Murphy, to be referred to by someone else's surname. I think the Deputy should really stop that sort of carry-on.
No, sorry-----
There is no need for a back and forth. The last time I checked, they were called the "Regional Independents". The Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, sits with us in Cabinet and the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, as well. I see Deputy Toole up there and I saw Deputy Heneghan earlier. I have also seen the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, the soon-to-be Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, the Minister of State, D…
Does the Deputy get one question or is this just to barrage me?
I thank the Ceann Comhairle. The next thing is this. The deals, if the Deputy wants to call them that, are called the "programme for Government". It is published on gov.ie. It will be implemented in full over the course of five years. There are no other deals and we look forward to advancing it.
It is the regional Independent group----
I am sorry. The groupings are for the Deputy, actually.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the regional Independents, the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, and Deputy Danny Healy-Rae.
I thank the Deputy very much for the question. I will ask the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW to revert on the specific project the Deputy referenced. I will point out that the OPW has assured the Government it has taken steps to enhance its own governance procedures to ensure that value for money is achieved in the delivery of projects. The Government is committed to achieving value for money in al…
It is extraordinary.
I thank the Deputy for his inaugural comments in his new role as a TD for Wicklow-Wexford. I wish him well and look forward to working with him, being from the neighbouring constituency of Wicklow. He is right that the previous Government and our colleague, the former Minister, Stephen Donnelly, showed great leadership on the issue of vaping in bringing forward very important and progressive public health legislation…
I congratulate the Deputy on her election to the Dáil. I wish her well. She is right to highlight the issue of University Hospital Limerick. It is a major issue for her constituents and for people in the mid-west more broadly. I could quote figures showing the increased budget, the increased staffing and the increase in beds that have taken place, but I accept there is much more to do. That is why the previous Minist…
I thank Deputy Ó Fearghaíl. It is good to see him back in his role of advocating for his constituents in Kildare South. I join with him in expressing sympathy to the family of the Aga Khan on his passing, and to the community he led. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, and I discussed this only yesterday. Tributes have been led by our President and throughout the country in acknowledging the huge philanthropic contribution …
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is not the first time that he has passionately raised the importance of the northern distributor road. The proposal was established in the Cork metropolitan area transport strategy, CMATS. It is seen as an absolutely essential or, in the words of the strategy, a "critical enabler" for its delivery. My understanding is that the road only emerged as a proposal in CMATS, whi…
Those words were clearly anything but what the Deputy has termed them. As she has rightly said, if the Deputy reads the programme for Government, and she referenced it, it commits the Government to working with the sector through the mechanisms that are available to progress the issues. As I said to her colleague Deputy Kerrane when she raised this matter, we have seen the interim agreement in October 2023. We have s…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I know it has been a source of huge frustration, annoyance and anger for people who want to know when this will become available. Budget 2025 announced the intention to fund the medicine cost of hormone replacement therapy products prescribed to women to help to manage the symptoms associated with all stages of menopause. This is for women who have been prescribed HRT by the…
I must say I agree with the Deputy. This is a bizarre situation where somebody over the age of 70 can drive kids in a private bus to the soccer or GAA game at the weekend but cannot drive them to school in a Bus Éireann bus. It is either safe or it is not safe and the inconsistency in relation to this is quite farcical and annoying at a time when we are trying to get more drivers. I have raised this myself. I do not …
If the Deputy sends the details to my office I will engage immediately with the Minister for housing in relation to that matter.
I thank Deputy O'Meara and congratulate him on his election representing the people of Tipperary North. I wish him very well. The programme for Government contains a number of commitments in relation to this. The Deputy is right that housing is the biggest challenge that our country faces and it is the biggest priority that the Government intends to address. As he also rightly highlighted, there is a number of enable…