I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this matter, which I will immediately raise with the Minister for Transport because we have provided significant capital uplift to the Department of Transport, quite rightly, for both road and public transport projects. I am aware there are specific issues around congestion, traffic and transport links in Galway. We are eager, as a Government, to see progress on them as well, speci…
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
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| 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 Carthy. I will certainly engage with the Minister for Transport on the specific issues he has raised in relation to Cavan-Monaghan. We are increasing the amount we are providing to the Department of Transport, increasing the amount of capital funding and announcing additional road funding allocations. I need to get a better understanding of the situation in relation to Cavan and Monaghan so I will ask …
My representatives keep me very informed. In fact, Deputy Carthy will be glad to know-----
This is the problem with the Deputy. When you try to answer a question-----
-----in good faith, he immediately resorts to partisan politics. That is his choice. Senator Joe O'Reilly and Deputy David Maxwell raised this matter at the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party last night, Deputy Carthy will be glad to know. I also told them the Minister will be looking into the issue. I will give them the news as well.
I want to answer the very serious question but I want to make the point that the Deputy must win the award for the party leader most effective at naming his councillors in this Chamber, particularly in the context of a by-election. I say that from a point of admiration. I must learn further from the Deputy. Senator Seán Kyne is ours.
There is a serious matter, though, that the Deputy raised and I genuinely do not wa…
Sure.
I thank Deputy Rice. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has responsibility for the delivery of health policy and the oversight of the HSE, so I will speak to her directly on this. I take the point that newly qualified paramedics are a scarce commodity with regard to their skill set at a time when we are trying to increase the numbers we have working in our ambulance service. The Deputy is right; ambulance service…
I thank Deputy Lawlor. I know Alan Corcoran and I will listen back to his programme and the information the Deputy has just put on the record of the House. I am sure the Minister for housing will do so as well. My starting point in this conversation is that the new rules are not meant to affect existing tenants.
Laws do need to be complied with by landlords and existing tenancies need to be respected. We do have oversight mechanisms in relation to anybody who breaches those rules, including the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, and other mechanisms too. It deserves a substantive reply because, clearly, this has affected quite a large number of people. I will ask that the Minister, Deputy Browne, hears the information the Dep…
In that case, I will ask him to come back to the Deputy directly.
I thank Deputy Murphy and join him in welcoming CBS High School Clonmel. I met a very busy Deputy Murphy - he is very busy; he works hard - last night coming back into the Dáil with Capri-Suns and Hula Hoops and the likes in anticipation of the students' visit today. I hope they will get an opportunity to enjoy that hospitality. He was genuinely looking forward to having them here today. They are welcome to the Dáil …
I am going to check that for the Deputy today with the Minister for Transport and the Minister for public expenditure and reform because everyone is eager to bring this to a conclusion. The Deputy's point about being able to provide clarity to people is reasonable, so I will ask the Ministers to come back to the Deputy urgently on that matter and try to provide clarity for those workers.
Considering St. Patrick's sc…
I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising this issue. I extend my full solidarity and that of everyone in this House and every right-thinking person to the victim. Far from discouraging the students who gathered in protest, I commend them on what they did. Sharing abusive images of a person is obviously abhorrent but it is also a crime. I am informed there is a Garda investigation into this and I hope the full rigours of …
I will certainly ask the Minister if he would consider meeting her. That could be useful and important. In the past, Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin highlighted some serious issues to me and did some very good work. I found my meeting with her to be very helpful and insightful so I will certainly ask the Minister, Deputy Lawless, to consider meeting the victim too.
There is a consistent and ongoing effort to misrepresent the factual situation in relation to the new rent rules and rental reform. I welcome the opportunity this morning in the Dáil to, I hope, disprove some of the scaremongering and misinformation and to provide some facts to people who are watching at home and would like to know the facts.
First, from 1 March, there is no change at all for existing tenancies - no…
We will see greater protection for renters than ever before. For the very first time ever, we will see nationwide rent pressure zones. For the first time ever, we will see six-year rolling tenancies providing people with that security of tenure. For the first time ever, in many ways, we will see an effective no-fault eviction ban. We brought in very strict and stringent rules in relation to that as well. Yes, from Ma…
Other than being able to-----
We are not going to do this; we are going to have a serious conversation. That is other than being able to rise for inflation and, even then, capped at 2%. For the first time ever, somebody who takes out a new tenancy in March will have that six-year security, the protection of an effective no-fault eviction ban, and will also know the rent cannot rise further during that six years, except in line with inflation but …
These are people the Deputies would know well because Deputy Ó Broin has met them twice in the past year according to the lobbying register. These are investment companies-----
They know well in Sinn Féin. They have met them twice in the past year.
I do not know what Deputy Gould talked to them about but they met them twice.
They have come out and said that what Sinn Féin said about it being 25% simply is not true. They said that the 25% was a projected figure over ten years. Deputy Doherty left that out. It is a projected figure over a period of ten years. Sinn Féin obviously recognises, or at least I think it does, there is a need for private investment to come into the rental market. I presume it does because its members keep meeting …
What I would say to the young people at home-----
Do not shout me down.