I want to raise with the Taoiseach the issue of the flotilla. As he knows, Dr. Margaret Connolly is a constituent of mine from County Sligo. She and 11 others have been detained by Israel on the open seas in international waters. Their boats were invaded and taken over by military force and people were taken by military force back to Israel. We do not know who they are, where they are, where they are being held or wh…
TDs / Martin Kenny
Martin Kenny
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
446
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
90,042
words spoken in the chamber
Across 358 contributions. Plus 23 contributions from the chair, not counted
389
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
103
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 446 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 358 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 11 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 8 | 11 |
| March 2025 | 35 | 18 |
| April 2025 | 23 | 20 |
| May 2025 | 42 | 34 |
| June 2025 | 14 | 7 |
| July 2025 | 19 | 14 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 26 | 5 |
| October 2025 | 13 | 27 |
| November 2025 | 20 | 24 |
| December 2025 | 19 | 7 |
| January 2026 | 29 | 29 |
| February 2026 | 22 | 51 |
| March 2026 | 39 | 21 |
| April 2026 | 23 | 13 |
| May 2026 | 25 | 27 |
| June 2026 | 34 | 13 |
| July 2026 | 9 | 19 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 24 | 5 |
| October 2026 | 11 | 13 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 179 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 Sligo-Leitrim 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
A trickle.
Biodiversity may sound like a buzz word but the reality is that it means all life on Earth - from the smallest micro-organism to the largest mammal and the tallest tree. It covers all ecosystems and habitats which shows how all life is connected and dependent on each other for survival, including us humans. Humans are the biggest threat to biodiversity. It is said that over 30% of habitats in Ireland are in decline. …
That mess continues to this day. The actions of the Government on the one side can often damage biodiversity on the other side.
I commend Deputy Ó Broin on bringing forward this motion. We clearly have a situation where rents and evictions are out of control in every part of the country and it is spiralling at an alarming rate. At the moment, I am dealing with a group of houses in my constituency in Enniscrone, Sonas. It is elder care accommodation beside a nursing home. Older people who live there have received eviction notices telling them …
It is welcome that the Commission has decided it wants to ban Brazilian beef and other food products coming into Europe in spite of the Mercosur trade agreement. It has come to this late in the day. Many of us have been calling out Mercosur and the situation we have with the trade agreement for decades. Deputy Carthy, as an MEP, led the charge in the European Union. At one stage Phil Hogan accepted that they hoped to…
We appreciate that there has been some progress made but we still have a situation where there is no traceability whatsoever with animals, particularly in Brazil. When a calf is born in Ireland it has to be tagged almost immediately. There have to be full checks and records of any medicine or antibiotics it receives. Everything has to be written down and accounted for. They have to meet all the standards. In fact, ev…
82. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on negotiations in relation to the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, budget and the proposal to cut payments to farmers in receipt of the State pension and farmers with off-farm income. [35915/26]
I want to get an update on CAP negotiations in relation to the proposals from the Commission, which are very concerning for many farmers and people in the food industry. The Commission is talking about a major cut in the funding. We need to do everything to ensure that this does not happen for agriculture in Ireland and across the European Union. We also need to see a big push-back on the notion farmers receiving a p…
I appreciate that and understand that a great deal of work has to be done. Central to all this will be that period when Ireland holds the Presidency. We need to ensure CAP is properly funded. For many of these situations regarding off-farm income, whether a pension or whatever else, there needs to be a recognition that the vast majority of farmers need an off-farm income to make the farm viable. That is the reality o…
I appreciate that. We need to develop a strategy around generational renewal which recognises that the older farmer is part of the farm. The previous situations where farmers felt they had an exclusion order and could not go near the place any more if they went into any of these schemes is totally inappropriate. We need to find a way to do this in partnership so we have generational renewal to make farming more profi…
This question relates to the TB action plan. I would like to get an update on it. The new rules came in last month. A lot of farmers and farm organisations have been critical of the level of communication they have received from the Department in regard to the new rules, how it is set out, the new categories and all of that. We need to see very clear communications to ensure that farmers know they are going to be abl…
I thank the Minister. I appreciate all of that and that there is work being done. The marts have been central to this because that is where a lot of farmers are coming into the situation. They are unaware of what category their cattle fall into when they are going to the mart, and that is a big issue because then they do not know who can buy them. A lot of farmers are finding it very difficult to navigate this whole …
I am not disagreeing with the Minister in that regard but the difficulty we have is that farmers who want to play ball and work with the system are finding it very difficult to do so because they do not understand it. It is not clear. The Minister said that being "clear and concise" was vital. It has not been made clear to farmers and they are very concerned that they do not know what impact this is going to have on …
112. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps his Department is taking to reverse the decline in volume of beef exports to the EU and the UK; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35477/26]
I want to ask the Minister about the declining volume of beef exports, particularly to the UK and the EU, over the past 12 to 18 months and the impact it is having on the sector. It is very clear that many farmers out there are not producing to the same level they had been.
We also have the situation in regard to the Mercosur countries when it comes to beef, particularly. There is talk of banning beef from Brazil co…
I appreciate that the value of products has gone up because prices have gone up. The price that is returned for beef internationally, particularly for higher quality product, has increased over the past number of years. That is because of a reduction in the number of cattle across Europe and many other parts of the world. It is creating that buoyancy in the market. The reality from an Irish perspective is that the am…
Why wait until September?
I thank the Minister. I understand that and appreciate there is work being done by an awful lot of people across the European Union from the Government here and other governments in Europe, as well as farm and consumer organisations, to look at all of this and to recognise that the product that has been coming in from Brazil is way below standard. The big problem with it all is traceability. There is no traceability …
The fertiliser issue is having a huge impact globally. Even the WHO has said that it is going to have an impact on food production and could lead to global food shortages. This is a real issue that we need to deal with here in Ireland with regard to resilience and to finding alternatives. The Minister mentioned that work has been done on this aspect and I welcome that.
One of the alternatives I would like the Minist…
Will the Deputy give me his herd number?
I am very glad to be here today to speak on behalf of everybody in Ireland and thank the nurses for the work that they do, particularly on International Nurses Day. It strikes me, on this International Nurses Day, that so many of our nurses are international when you walk around the hospitals. I think between one in five and one in six are from overseas. Many of them come here because they have the opportunity to com…
I commend colleagues on bringing this forward. The reality is that the vast majority of people around the country are finding it very difficult to meet their energy costs. We all know that. We can see it in the arrears. We can see it in the difficulty people are having when it comes to the cost of living across the board. All of this basically stems from energy. That is one of the big issues we have. This country has…
I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this Private Member's motion. The vast majority of people recognise that we need the Government to take action to deal with the ever-growing cost-of-living crisis. The previous budget, which was introduced here last October, did absolutely nothing for ordinary people and workers. It was an example of Government spending great deals of money to deliver very little. That ha…
Through a new Government-----