What questions are for
A parliamentary question asks a minister for information or for action. The rules say a question must be about the minister's own department, or something they are officially responsible for. A question about a body that reports to a department, such as a state agency, is allowed only in respect of Government policy. Questions are for getting information, not for making a speech, so they are meant to be short.
The Taoiseach and the senior ministers answer questions rather than ask them. Ministers of State can ask written questions, and the record shows some of them do.
Written questions
Most questions get a written answer. A question is treated as written unless the TD asks for an oral answer. It has to be in by 11am, three working days before the sitting it is for: a question in on Thursday is answered on the following Tuesday. The answers are published in the Official Report.
In this Dáil so far, 117,339 of the 121,080 questions on record were written, and 3,741 oral.
Oral questions
An oral question is answered by the minister in person in the chamber, and other TDs can follow up with short supplementary questions. Ministers take their turn on a rota, each answering on about one day in every five weeks. The order the questions are taken in is set by an electronic lottery.
Oral questions need four days' notice. Each TD can put down at most two for oral answer on any one day, not counting questions to the Taoiseach; party spokespeople can put down five. There is not time to reach them all, so any question to a minister that is not reached gets a written answer instead.
Priority Questions
Up to five Priority Questions can be asked on a sitting day, to that day's minister. Only a spokesperson nominated by a party or a technical group can table one, and only that TD can follow up. Each is given up to six minutes: 30 seconds to ask, two minutes for the minister's answer, then a minute each back and forth. They need three days' notice. The Taoiseach does not take Priority Questions.
Questions to the Taoiseach
The Taoiseach answers oral questions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A question not reached is carried over to the next two days the Taoiseach is answering; if it is still not reached, the TD can resubmit it or the Taoiseach's answer goes into the Official Report.
Leaders' Questions
The leaders of opposition parties and groups put questions on matters of public importance, with no notice needed. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays the Taoiseach usually answers; on Thursdays, the Tánaiste. There are at most four a day, in an agreed rota.
Each leader gets three minutes to ask and the Taoiseach three minutes to answer, then one minute each for a follow-up question and reply.
Find Leaders' Questions in the record
Topical Issues
A TD can give notice of an issue of public concern they want to raise. The Ceann Comhairle picks up to four for a sitting day. The TD speaks for four minutes and the minister replies for four; then two minutes each to finish.
Questions on Policy or Legislation
After the Order of Business, and on Wednesdays and Thursdays, TDs can put short questions to the Taoiseach or Tánaiste about promised legislation and other Government business. They are taken at the Ceann Comhairle's discretion.
Urgent questions
A private notice question is for something so urgent and sudden that the normal deadlines would not allow it. The Ceann Comhairle decides whether it qualifies, and it must be in by 2.30pm on the day.
The rules
The Questions Office checks every question on the Ceann Comhairle's behalf. A question that breaks the rules, for example by asking about something no minister is responsible for, can be disallowed, and the TD is told. A question sent to the wrong minister can be transferred to the right one.
Questions on this site
Every question in the record is on the Questions page, by the department it went to, and on the Topics page, by the subject heading it was filed under. Department names are shown as the record prints them; several changed when departments were reorganised in June 2025.
A count of questions is not a measure of how hard a TD works. Written questions are one tool among many, and TDs use them very differently. The Insights page explains more.
Sources
From the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Constitution, checked on 24 September 2026. The official guidance is the authority; if anything here differs from it, it wins.
- Dáil procedure guide: types of questions (oireachtas.ie)
- Dáil procedure guide: types of business (oireachtas.ie)