Deputy Tóibín raises a very important and very serious issue. We have seen a very large increase of about 500% - that is the figure in my mind - in unaccompanied minors presenting. I am sitting beside the Minister of State with responsibility for migration, Deputy Brophy. It is a reality that an increasing number of people are now travelling by themselves and they present to the international protection office as min…
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
First, I join with colleagues in welcoming our former colleague, Ireland's friend and our Commissioner in the European Union, Commissioner McGrath, and thank him for the job he is doing in the European Commission on crucial areas at this time. I also join with Deputy Doherty in welcoming the group from the Shankill Shared Women's Centre to the Public Gallery. I thank him for the important work he is doing also.
On b…
Deputy Gould should hang on a second and give me a chance. It now stands at 62% of properties, which affects more than six out of ten people. It also finds the benefit of the rent pressure zones because it finds that, where rents have increased, it is disproportionately in areas not covered by rent pressure zones.
Deputy Doherty likes to talk a lot about what has happened since the election. What has happened since …
-----including ending no-fault evictions for larger landlords with four or more tenancies, and bringing in rent controls and extending them nationally through the RPZs for the first time ever, from 20 June. We are already seeing the benefit of that. There is a housing emergency, but there are some signs of encouragement in terms of the number of properties now that are not seeing an increase in rents this year. That …
I will take the same latitude on the clock as well.
Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I do not understand a Sinn Féin policy that opposes every single support for small landlords to try to keep them in the market and then ones to make sure we have more rental properties available. How does Sinn Féin wish to have rental properties without landlords, yet it demonises small landlords across this country and opposes every single measure?
Mom and pop landlords - people in my constituency and Deputy Doherty's - who rent out one or two properties are demonised. We need them to stay in the market. Deputy Doherty wants to drive them out and increase rental property. It does not make sense. It is probably why he is celebrating his 15th anniversary as the Opposition spokesperson on finance. Five finance Ministers later, he is still sitting in the same seat …
Angry Pearse.
In the extra time available to me that was available to Deputy Doherty, can I point out there is only party in this House that receives very significant financial funding from builders and construction companies?
The published accounts of Friends of Sinn Féin in the United States of America show that of its €366,000 in donations-----
-----the bulk of them came from construction companies and builders. Do you know where the biggest donation from?
It came from one construction company in America that gave Sinn Féin $20,000. Sinn Féin tells the young people of Ireland it is on the side of the working people and Mary Lou-----
-----flies out to America to take the dollars from the big businesses, big companies and big builders.
Sinn Féin is the party that takes big money from big American building companies. Deputy Doherty is a hypocrite.
Funny boy, Pearse.
Funny boy, Pearse. Happy anniversary.
Fifteen years of shouting and roaring, offering nothing positive to anybody. That is you, Pearse. Happy anniversary.
The rent tax credit and RPZs are benefiting people in Donegal for the first time ever. You are welcome.
You are very fair.
You can say that again.
I thank the Deputy. I am very much aware that the cost-of-living crisis is still real for very many families across the country. The Deputy has asked me a specific question, so I am going to spend the time on it. I do want to acknowledge that and I also want outline why the Government has taken a number of measures to protect the most vulnerable, including a very significant increase in the working family payment, an…
I tried to largely agree with the Deputy on this occasion too. I accept it has taken a period of time since the regulator said it needed these new powers to get to this point we are at today where we have a draft statutory instrument. I would genuinely point out that those reasons are valid because this is a novel area. We are going beyond the requirement under European law. What we do has to be proportionate. We wan…
I thank Deputy Stanley for raising these matters. I was indeed in Laois canvassing during the election. I was delighted that my new colleague, Deputy Willie Aird, joined the Deputy in Dáil Éireann.
They are promises that Deputy Aird is going to keep and he will work with the Deputy constructively in relation to that as well because we have a lot of work we need to do to deliver for the people of Laois and the midlands. The Deputy makes constructive and fair points. We obviously have to put the infrastructure in place to enable the housing capacity to be delivered. That is a statement of fact.
What the Deputy s…
They certainly will be. When I look at the budget that was introduced just across the Irish Sea yesterday, I am very thankful to be the Minister for Finance in a country where we are able to dramatically increase our capital investment. That did not happen by accident; it happened due to the hard work and ingenuity of the Irish people. It also happened as a result of the policies that my party, Fianna Fáil and others…