-----to try to get a better deal for Ireland. Whether or not the Deputy realises or acknowledges it, that is exactly what happened. The Government voted the way it said it was going to vote.
It could not have been stronger or clearer. I take grave exception to people who tried to undermine the good work of the Minister, Deputy Heydon, over the past 12 months when he was engaging on an extremely regular basis not jus…
TDs / Michael Healy-Rae
Michael Healy-Rae
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
898
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
41,713
words spoken in the chamber
33,601 as a minister, 8,112 as a TD
302
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
201
topics asked about
Across 18 departments
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
What they ask about
The subject headings the Oireachtas filed their questions under.
Who they ask
The departments their questions were addressed to.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Questions asked 898 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 254 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 24 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 94 | 11 |
| March 2025 | 47 | 2 |
| April 2025 | 35 | 9 |
| May 2025 | 45 | 3 |
| June 2025 | 39 | 9 |
| July 2025 | 64 | 3 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 53 | 3 |
| October 2025 | 43 | 48 |
| November 2025 | 53 | 29 |
| December 2025 | 38 | 27 |
| January 2026 | 35 | 10 |
| February 2026 | 26 | 61 |
| March 2026 | 17 | 9 |
| April 2026 | 31 | 3 |
| May 2026 | 81 | 3 |
| June 2026 | 54 | 13 |
| July 2026 | 29 | 1 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| September 2026 | 43 | 1 |
| October 2026 | 47 | 7 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 91 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Asked about similar topics
Worked out by computer from the subject headings of each TD's questions, giving more weight to headings few TDs use. It shows shared subjects, not shared views.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Kerry 29 November 2024 to now
- party Independent 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine 29 January 2025 to 14 April 2026
-----where we worked diligently on this.
If the Deputy did not know that work was going on, it was his fault.
If he does not know what is happening-----
-----we cannot be responsible for that.
The Deputy is 100% correct in raising this very serious matter because it is a matter of major concern from the point of view of road safety and the spread of TB, although the Department does not acknowledge it to be the major cause he and I would agree it is. We have situations where we did not have TB before and we did not have deer. Now we have deer and we have TB.
To answer the Deputy's question, as he knows, th…
-----and it is a matter this Department and Government will continue to keep on top of. If nothing else-----
-----in the interests of road safety and the number of accidents we have on our roads every day because of deer straying on to public roads.
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins. for the excellent work he has been doing, in a very practical, down to earth and sensible way, in trying to help the housing situation. By his initiatives and his control of the situation, along with the senior Minister, Deputy Browne, whom I also thank publicly, he is certainly introducing changes that will be felt up and down the length and breadth of this country. The…
A lurcher.
That is a scurrilous accusation to be making.
It is of course.
It is just because you did not like what he said. He hurt you in what he said, that is all that is wrong with you, because he told the truth.
He told the truth. The truth hurts.
To make it very clear, the Government will 100% oppose this Bill as it is proposed.
I will call it out for what it is. It is extremely misleading. I would go so far as to say it is a con job. I will tell the House why. As currently drafted, the Bill proposes to ban all hunting for foxes, regardless of the purpose of that hunting and the manner in which it is carried out. That has been ignored today several times by …
-----with red coats shouting "Tally-ho". That is rubbish. That is not what this Bill proposes to ban and the people who are saying otherwise obviously have not read it in its entirety. If farmers have lambs outside in a field and want to protect them, this Bill would make them criminals tomorrow if they shot foxes tonight.
That is exactly the legal opinion regarding what is proposed here.
I will make that very clear.
I was not going to talk about Deputy Gogarty at all but, seeing as he is interrupting me, I will say that he completely misled everybody here. He obviously did not read the Bill because he does not know what he is talking about.
If he did, he would not have said what he said. A lot has been said about the 73% of people who say that they do not want this type of fox hunting to continue. There is an important statistic left out of that, which is that 98% of those people said they had never seen a hunt or foxes being killed. They never saw anything. All they are doing is listening to media reports about this. These 73% are talking about somethi…
The badgers are absolutely a leading contributor to the spread of TB.
Again, this is something the Deputy knows nothing about.
It is scientific fact.
It is a scientific fact but, of course, the other side do not want to hear that because they think the badgers are beautiful. Tell that to a farmer like the good friend of mine who yesterday saw 17 in-calf heifers having to leave his yard because they had contracted TB. Why? It was because of badgers.
We have to eradicate badgers.