First, on what the countertariff measures might look like, it is open to consultation until 10 June. The Government will make its views known. It is also open to every sector and person to make a submission, and we are encouraging people to do that. What we saw the last time we engaged on this was that we actually made some progress in removing some items from the list of retaliatory measures that were of particular …
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 thank Deputy McCarthy for the question. The passport service is experiencing a high level of demand for passports as our citizens prepare for upcoming summer travel plans. Thanks to operational and staffing plans implemented by my Department, I am pleased to say that the passport service is successfully responding to the current level of demand, and we have issued over 440,000 passports and passport cards to date t…
I will double-check that I am correct but my understanding is that of the 858 staff, approximately 133 are temporary clerical officers. I will double-check the split between temporary and permanent staff.
I thought the Deputy might have a particular interest in Cork so I checked and found that 117 staff are working in the Passport Office in Cork. It is not possible to have any more staff in Cork because the building…
I thank Deputy McCarthy. I will check with the Passport Office if it plans to look further at that. There is always a passport reform process under way. We have seen a number of reforms. We have come a very long way from the Covid backlog and all the challenges then to now having a system that is very efficient. It is a good example of public service reform and also of digitisation. I meet so many of my constituents,…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 169, 170, 179, 185, 191 and 195 together.
I agree with the Deputy that the Bill takes on an even greater level of concern after the horrific announcement today of Israel's plans to develop further illegal settlements. The situation in the West Bank is deeply concerning. It is clearly unacceptable. I want to be clear that Ireland and the EU are strongly opposed to Israel's settlement …
I take the point Deputy Connolly makes around the date of the original Bill being 2018. That is, of course, a statement of fact. Respectfully, I make the point back that, for better or worse, trade is an EU competency, and I am happy to be in the European Union. It has been the position of successive Governments for quite a period of time that, therefore, any issues in that Bill were a matter to be dealt with at EU l…
As the Deputy can imagine, I will be engaging with the Attorney General as we seek to advance this general scheme.
In response to Deputy Stanley's request, that was the point I was making. In the previous Government, I had conversations about whether it was possible to move forward with an occupied territories Bill.
I accept that the line Deputy Murphy is quoting regarding political choice is accurate, but from bei…
Deputy Murphy is right. That was an option. It could be amended line by line or section by section. Our view was that bringing forward a new Bill was a better way of doing it.
I am open to persuasion on the issue of services. It is not a persuasion that needs to be done from a policy point. Rather, I am open to persuasion as to whether it would work in this Bill. I am not afraid of infringement proceedings. There ar…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 172 and 173 together.
I thank Deputy Lahart. I am committed, as is the rest of the Government, to working with our European and Ukrainian counterparts to maintain our solidarity with Ukraine and to ensure Ukraine gets the support it needs to defend itself against brutal Russian aggression. This remains a key focus of my engagements, both bilaterally and at the European Union. Ukraine…
To start with the Deputy's last point, that is a huge concern because, in fairness to President Trump, he has been very clear that he wants the war to end. He wants peace and the President of the European Commission, President von der Leyen, has welcomed some of the interventions President Trump has made in that regard. There has been significant dialogue between a number of senior European leaders including the Brit…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 174 and 176 together.
I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. His party is working him hard today. I assure him that my officials and I remain in ongoing and close contact with a number of like-minded countries, including France, which the Deputy referenced in the question, on our opposition to the current EU-Mercosur trade deal. Indeed, as I stated in response to an earlier question, I held a bila…
I had a significant one-on-one meeting with my French counterpart specifically about Mercosur. Our links and engagement with France on this remain intense and ongoing.
Our position within the European Commission is very well understood. I do not think other member states would be in any way surprised by Ireland's position. What happens next is important. At the moment, the agreement is undergoing a legal scrubbing, …
I will say more on CETA another time when we can have a proper debate. If we cannot ratify a free trade agreement with Canada in the middle of all the turbulence that is going on in the world, I am concerned. I cannot think of a better, less offensive nation to trade with and have a trade agreement with than Canada. Let us have that debate when the time comes. It is for another day. The Deputy provoked me there.
I w…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for consistently keeping it on the agenda in his time in the House. It is important that is done. Earlier this month, as he noted, we marked the 51st anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974. Those brutal attacks claimed the lives of 34 people, including an unborn baby, injured hundreds more and shocked the country to its core. More than five decades…
I agree with everything the Deputy said on this matter. I fully acknowledge that very country has a right, even an obligation, in regard to its national security. However, that cannot become a cover for not providing assistance that could and should be provided. This House and successive Governments have constructively put forward proposals as to how that access to information could be provided. Not much is unanimous…
I do not have specific insights into provisional findings from Operation Denton. I know it is hoped the report will appear in the coming months. We all hope this provides families and survivors with much-needed answers. I will continue to make the point, as will the Minister for Justice, regarding the importance of this information being provided and, more broadly, the issue of legacy. The Irish Government wants two …
I propose to take Questions Nos. 177 and 243 together.
I met with Sean Brown's family just over two weeks ago on what was the 28th anniversary of his murder. I was struck by Bridie Brown and her family and the anguish, pain and hurt they have been put through. The family have shown enormous strength and resilience in pursuing this case. I commended them on their tireless campaign for truth, transparency and accounta…
I join the Deputies in commending Bellaghy GAA and the GAA more widely. The president of the GAA, Jarlath Burns, attended the meeting with the Brown family when they came to see me. Sean Brown was a good, decent man locking up his GAA club when he was brutally murdered 28 years ago. Not only have no answers been given to his family and no Article 2-compliant investigation established, there have been clear active eff…
I thank the Labour Party and Deputy Smith for bringing forward this motion today. I thank them for the constructive way in which they are approaching the most horrific, appalling situation in Gaza and the Middle East, and I mean that. I approach this debate, and respectfully suggest we should all approach it, by moving beyond the mantra of "Government good, Opposition bad" or "Opposition good, Government bad". It doe…
I want to begin by welcoming members of the O'Farrell family to the House. I am conscious that for Shane's parents, Lucia and Jim, and his for his four sisters, Hannah, Gemma, Aimee and Pia, this very far from your first time in this House, or in the environs of Government Buildings. I had the honour of meeting you when I served as Minister for Justice. I was in awe of you all. I was in awe of your family and I was i…
I will begin today by condemning the senseless antisemitic murder of Yaron and Sarah overnight. These were two young diplomats in Washington DC who were killed in the prime of their lives. They were a young couple, soon to be engaged. I think of them and their families, to whom I send our sympathies. I also think of all those present at the Jewish museum in Washington DC last night, who include one of our own young d…
The sheer hypocrisy of the Deputy. It was only in March of this year that the First Minister of Northern Ireland, who is the Deputy's party's vice president, said that she was delighted that £671 million would be spent on a state-of-the-art children's hospital at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital. Ladies and gentlemen, who was that contract with? Does anyone know? It was BAM: the same developer building the hospital …
Not only that-----
I have more to say, please. The contract was announced and it was welcomed.
Not only was the contract signed with BAM, do you know what happened then? It pulled out. As a result, Sinn Féin has further compounded the delays to the delivery of the project. Not only that but the children's hospital that it is delivering in Northern Ireland and that Sinn Féin's First Minister and vice president welcomed is more expensive per square metre than the children's hospital we are delivering in this jur…