The Taoiseach should ask the Irish people what they think.
TDs / Rory Hearne
Rory Hearne
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
487
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
142,007
words spoken in the chamber
Across 575 contributions
398
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
112
topics asked about
Across 17 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 487 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 575 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 6 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 21 | 16 |
| March 2025 | 24 | 21 |
| April 2025 | 20 | 27 |
| May 2025 | 22 | 28 |
| June 2025 | 23 | 28 |
| July 2025 | 126 | 46 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 25 | 7 |
| October 2025 | 24 | 40 |
| November 2025 | 12 | 17 |
| December 2025 | 10 | 28 |
| January 2026 | 38 | 53 |
| February 2026 | 5 | 53 |
| March 2026 | 40 | 28 |
| April 2026 | 27 | 19 |
| May 2026 | 12 | 65 |
| June 2026 | 26 | 26 |
| July 2026 | 11 | 26 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 11 | 22 |
| October 2026 | 4 | 24 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 359 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 Dublin North-West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Social Democrats 29 November 2024 to now
I want to raise the case of Roman Slater, a six-year-old boy in my constituency who is still at home. He has no school place. I have spoken to his mother regularly over the past few weeks and she is broken. She has applied to numerous schools but he still has no school place. He has autism and a developmental delay. I spoke to her again today and asked if there was any update. She said it is so draining, that she tho…
I think they could be working more.
They are clearly not doing it sufficiently if he is still at home.
They are not willing to commit the resources.
No, they are not - the NCSE are not.
The Minister and everyone here knows these fares are illogical. We have a cost of-living crisis. Again, the Minister knows and everyone knows that people are really struggling. We want to get people out of cars and into public transport, and the Government doing this by increasing fares. It is completely counterproductive. People are talking about average increases of 15%. In Dublin, the short Leap fare is going to i…
Is it? Why not have a completely public transport system then? Why get private operators? Surely we understand the failure that has happened in the UK with the privatisation of public services. We should have fares as low as possible. People have spoken about places like Luxembourg where free public transport has worked. We need to be reducing fares rather than increasing them and ensure that we have a proper public …
The Tánaiste is probably well aware that there are thousands of council tenants across this country living in absolutely scandalous conditions with mould and damp. In my constituency, I have been working with a number of harrowing cases. I visited homes and have seen mould and damp on windows and in bedrooms, and the impact on children and babies. How is it right and fair that council tenants living in mouldy and dam…
There is extreme concern, as my colleagues have expressed, that really what is going on here is the Government trying to hide the scale of need that it is not meeting and that this is not ultimately about delivering services but about trying to take the political pressure off. It is disgraceful when we look at the waiting lists. Of course, that is the power of the waiting lists. They reveal the level of need that is …
I support what has been said, and the Social Democrats will not be opposing the motion. We will support what has been put forward on the basis that funding is going to local authorities and AHBs but not with regard to the way in which it has been done. There are serious gaps in what has been proposed and this is a pity because there really was an opportunity here to address the significant issues with defective build…
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill. It is absolutely true that people across this country really are struggling. This Government appears to be completely out of touch with the scale of their struggling. Barnardos recently released figures from a survey it did on families and children. It was very sad to see the lack of coverage it got and particularly from the Government. That survey found that in one i…
I am disappointed the Minister could not be here to take the matter but I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, is. I want to raise the case of a child with additional needs in my constituency who, almost a month into the school year when other children are in school - almost four weeks now - still does not have an appropriate school place. I also want to raise the issue of promised schools still not …
I reiterate that it is important that the project is delivered for Finglas Parochial National School as soon as possible. I really do think the parents deserve a very clear date as to when that will happen. My understanding is that it was committed to be delivered in September and we are getting very close to the end of September. It really should be in place.
I want to go back to the specific case I raised, which I…
I also welcome the Bill. It is important, as my colleague said, we empower local authorities and the Road Safety Authority, RSA, to enhance their data-sharing arrangements. There are also other welcome aspects to the Bill.
I will pick up where my colleague left off and speak about my constituency. There is a serious crisis with the lack of enforcement. We have met and engaged with the parents of Grace Lynch, Martin …
I thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this motion which we are supporting. I want to thank Friends of the Earth, which has done incredible work on this in recent months. I highlight the report it has done which shows how much Irish households have been paying for the expansion of data centres. There was €715 million more in electricity bills between 2015 and 2023, and it has identified that Irish househol…
When does the Taoiseach want to answer?
Fine. The Central Bank report out today highlights that the length of time it takes to build a home has doubled in the past ten years. It used to take two years but now it takes four. The Taoiseach's policies created this housing disaster and this report shows that they continue to make it worse. We saw during the summer house prices and rents way beyond what any normal person can afford.
Why will the Government not…
That is not true.
Developers and investors-----
I want to continue where my two colleagues left off and highlight that the Minister's tone was quite condescending. She said, "Make it make sense", as if what we were saying was unfounded, was ridiculous and it was quite demeaning coming from a Minister. When she talks about things that make sense, it was the Taoiseach she voted for who said in 2013 that the triple lock was "core" to our neutrality. Make that make se…
I thank you, a Leas Cheann-Comhairle, for your work and support during the year and thank all the staff here. I wish my colleagues in government the best of luck over the summer and respite from our robust engagement. We look forward to going at it again in the autumn.
I want to raise an issue related to Dublin Fire Brigade and the emergency response framework that exists. I have been very concerned by the ongoing t…
I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is important to have a discussion about the context of education costs and back-to-school costs. Of course, the context is massive inequality in this country. The gap between the haves and the have nots is worsening year after year while we have 11 billionaires in this country who have a combined wealth equal to that of 3.5 million people or two thirds of …
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
The Government is ramming through planning legislation this week that will exempt sheds out the back without proper scrutiny. It is satisfied with handing our young people to vulture landlords. The Government is now offering a future of renting a shed out the back with no rights whatsoever. Threshold has requested that the legislation be paused. It is seriously concerned that the Government will create a new class of…