Can the Deputy please stop shouting? Just please stop shouting.
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 would like to be allowed to answer a very serious question. Thank you. Prison capacity is a very serious issue. There are far too many people out on the streets, causing chaos in communities, who need to be in prison.
They cannot be in prison unless we expand prison capacity. Our population has grown. I believe in alternatives to prison but there are some people who need to be behind bars. This House has passed laws to extend prison sentences but has not put in place the prison capacity to support those extensions. I have been Minister for justice. No Minister for justice wants to receive reports notifying him or her that people a…
I thank Deputy O'Shea for raising this important issue for his constituents. The N20 is a strategically important route. The proposed project aims to enhance regional accessibility, to improve the network, to connect the cities of Cork and Limerick, and to improve connections to west Cork and Kerry. It will really help to allow balanced regional growth and development. The N20-M20 Cork-Limerick project will provide m…
I thank Deputy Clarke for raising this very important issue. After I leave the Chamber I will discuss it directly with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who has responsibility for mental health. There are a number of actions that the Minister of State is already working on. I want to say that funding is not and will not be a constraint to this. There are real challenges around recruitment, retention of services a…
I thank the Deputy. It is my intention to bring the general scheme next week. There is a very small chance it will go to the following week but it is my working assumption that I will get it to the Cabinet next week so, yes, I believe we will meet the timeline in June.
I have been keeping in touch with the Chair of the foreign affairs committee, Deputy Lahart, about this. The Attorney General is doing that for me. I…
I thank Deputy McCormack. I agree with the premise. All of us on the Government benches feel very strongly about this. There was very good engagement with the INTO by many of us in our constituencies and at the day it held this week in Buswells Hotel. I thank the INTO for the constructive way in which it has engaged with us. Obviously, all of these matters will be considered in the context of the budget but this Gove…
The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and I are listening to Deputy Ó Muirí and he is so right. What has haunted me from the programme, and he has captured it very well, was the lack of basic humanity. Yes, there is more this Government needs to do and will do. The Minister, Deputy MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, are leading on this as regards safeguarding legislation and all of tha…
I think the INTO will be very satisfied with its very effective campaign this week. I say that in all sincerity because it did have a very effective campaign this week and clearly met with so many TDs as it should in doing its job in highlighting the needs of its schools.
To reiterate the point I made earlier to Deputy Mythen, and on the concerns he raised regarding schools, in particular in Wexford, Government will…
I have got a bit of this today. Everybody does their best in representing their constituents but with the position I hold within Government I need to be conscious even if cases can be readily identified, even if not named. I do not want to comment on that but take that as read. I am not aware of the correspondence from the UN but I will make myself aware of it now the Deputy has brought it to my attention and I will …
I thank Deputy Doherty. Housing is the biggest domestic challenge that this country faces and the people in this country face. It is the biggest societal challenge on a domestic level and it is now a real economic challenge as well.
We have to do more when it comes to housing. We, the parties that formed the Government and the Independents who support it, were very clear that if returned to office, we would work to …
We can come back to that in a moment. Other actions needed include: resourcing An Bord Pleanála properly; enacting and commencing the various provisions of the Planning and Development Acts in order that we can speed up the delivery of planning, because planning decisions are holding back the delivery of homes and infrastructure; increasing the zoned land for housing, and that is what the national planning framework …
No, just yours. The misleading of people in relation to Irish Water is your fault.
We have been very clear that we are going to have to spend an awful lot more on Uisce Éireann. I met with the chief executive of Uisce Éireann for a number of hours last Friday. Uisce Éireann has presented to the Government real plans that if we can provide it with significant additional capital funding over the summer period in the context of the review of the national development plan, it will be able to, I am sure…
I am not sure who is playing leader of Sinn Féin today, whether it is you or Pearse. I am not sure whether this is the audition for the next leader of Sinn Féin but I would like to speak, if that is okay.
We will publish a new housing plan-----
They do not want an answer because they are not about the answer.
May I speak? I am sure Pearse does not need your help.
We are going to produce a new housing plan in July. Deputy Doherty can be quite assured that part of that new housing plan will be significant additional funding and enabling provisions for Irish Water and, indeed, for energy. We have been clear, and we were very clear in the election, about what we would do with the proceeds from the Apple account in terms of how that money would be deployed.
I agree on this point:…
Over the past number of years I have been in government, we have seen a very significant increase in the number of homes delivered in this country. We saw 133,000 new homes delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of them delivered between 2022 and 2024. Deputy Doherty never acknowledges that bit. He never acknowledges that we have rebuilt a construction sector and rebuilt an economy, that we now have a national …
-----if Deputies want to work constructively and not politicise the issue of housing, to actually make real progress in the time ahead. We now have the legislative background-----
I am not going to be shouted down by the Deputy. I am going to speak, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
Between now and the month of July, we are going to work on a housing plan; not a glossy document but a targeted list of actions we can take in relation to water, energy and planning that will get us to 300,000 homes. I assure Deputies we have the money and capital to make this happen. What we now need is political support across this House and in communities to drive on delivery.
I hope the Deputy will support the establishment of a housing activation office that will do exactly what he said, which is bring in people from Irish Water and the local authorities and put them in an office working together to break down those silos so we can deliver the homes for our people.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He is right. This is an area where a significant amount of work is needed to make progress. There is no doubt about that. I would make the point at the outset that I do not think any one strand of work will get us to where we need to get. We will need to do four or five very significant things at the same time and this is the focus of the Government, including the Minister, …