-----is going to court. One of its elected representatives has rushed to the courts to try to block those changes to apartment standards.
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 ask Deputy Sheehan respectfully, as his party's spokesperson on housing-----
-----to pick up the phone to his councillor and tell him to stop weaponising the use of the courts to try to delay changes we need to make to apartment standards.
There will be students in Limerick who need more apartments and student accommodation to be built and the Labour Party councillor is actively delaying that in my respectful opinion.
I always think phrases such as "donning hard hats" are a bit pejorative. People put on hard hats when they visit building sites because of health and safety. It is the law of the land. Ministers go out and about to meet people who build homes. I am proud to do that and to listen directly to the people who build homes, including at the LDA site I visited with the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, the Minister, Deputy…
Deputies will continue to see the quarterly commencement figures, the completion figures, the planning permission figures and the mortgage drawdown figures, which show there are more first-time buyers now than at any point since 2007. However, just like the approach we took on the action plan for jobs, we will provide an opportunity for a pipeline over the lifetime of the Government and we will be judged on that. We …
We will be judged on the delivery of this plan. It is a good plan and it is only part of the jigsaw. The national development plan is an equally important part in which we took the decision this summer to significantly increase investment. From memory, there will be over €50 billion extra for the enabling infrastructure such as transport, water, wastewater and energy. That will be key. The next instalment will be at …
The Minister for housing is attending an event. He will look forward to having a debate with the Deputy because he looks forward to hearing how the Social Democrats will build all this stuff.
It is easy to come in here and say they are against everything.
What does the Deputy think I am, his secretary? I do not know where the Minister is going.
I have missed Deputy Gould's interruptions. He was very quiet. I was wondering why he was so quiet.
Perhaps it has been a tough day at the Sinn Féin office.
Sinn Féin TDs were a bit quieter with the heckling today.
I do not know who trains Deputy O'Callaghan but he would want to get well trained before the next debate on housing.
As is often the case, I agree with the Deputy on some things and disagree with him on others. I will try to take him through that. Rents in this country are too high. That is why we have taken a number of measures to try to increase supply. I am of the view that when you increase the supply of housing, there is a demand-and-supply effect. I also believe that we need to do other things in the here and now. That is why…
I am not saying that we are there, but the position is much better than it was. I am putting the House on notice that this Government intends to bring forward legislation in respect of the delivery of critical infrastructure in an emergency manner. I remind people at home that we did that before. We did it in relation to Brexit in the context of port infrastructure. We did it in Rosslare and at Dublin Port. We certai…
Yes.
I am only smiling because the Deputy is the first voice from the Opposition that has actually suggested-----
I really appreciate that because this united Opposition thing gets presented a lot, but there are different voices and different perspectives. The Deputy is the first Member of the Opposition who has critiqued the Government for not going further with our VAT reduction measure. The rest of them have slated us for doing anything at all in respect of it. That is a point of difference. When you are in government, you ar…
Go raibh maith agat for raising this matter. I thank the Deputy for the work he is doing on the Oireachtas committee and as our party spokesperson in the area of climate action. He triggered a number of thoughts on my part in relation to this. The overriding priority has to be that the perfect is not the enemy of the good when it comes to homeowners being supported. The Government and I consider the current system to…
The Deputy is entirely correct. People are fundamentally good, and they fundamentally want to do what is good for them, their families, their kids, the next generation and their communities. Everybody wants clean air. Everybody wants a better environment. Everybody wants a better climate. We instinctively want to pass on our planet to the next generation in better shape than we inherited it. That is how people work. …
I helped to write it.
I admire the Deputy's passion, but I question his accuracy. For the people listening in and the-----
I will tell you now.
I am about to. There is information on page 52, page 53, page 54, page 55, page 56-----
-----page 56, page 57 and then a nice summary on page 58. Please do not mislead the people of Ireland.