In a county like Donegal, we are uniquely impacted by these increases in oil and fuel. We rely heavily on home heating oil to heat our homes. You cannot work in Donegal unless you have a car or van to get around. Public transport just is not there. We are uniquely affected. I find it astonishing that we are weeks into this crisis now and there is not a clear indication from the Government that it is going to cut the …
TDs / Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Portrait: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (CC BY 4.0) · source file
584
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
50,740
words spoken in the chamber
Across 447 contributions
442
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
153
topics asked about
Across 20 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 584 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 447 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 3 |
| January 2025 | 5 | 11 |
| February 2025 | 43 | 38 |
| March 2025 | 53 | 18 |
| April 2025 | 28 | 39 |
| May 2025 | 33 | 26 |
| June 2025 | 37 | 17 |
| July 2025 | 35 | 24 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 12 | 22 |
| October 2025 | 38 | 16 |
| November 2025 | 40 | 17 |
| December 2025 | 14 | 42 |
| January 2026 | 39 | 16 |
| February 2026 | 35 | 43 |
| March 2026 | 24 | 18 |
| April 2026 | 16 | 29 |
| May 2026 | 39 | 21 |
| June 2026 | 40 | 5 |
| July 2026 | 12 | 9 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| September 2026 | 20 | 10 |
| October 2026 | 21 | 22 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 319 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 Donegal 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
Deputy Ó Laoghaire advises that he is on his way.
13. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health when the HSE will allow the home support service in Donegal to resume recruitment for healthcare assistants to address the growing waiting list for the service in the county.; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17182/26]
This question relates to the waiting lists of 324 for home support services in Donegal. I am very clear from speaking to staff in the service that the HSE recruitment policies are preventing it from recruiting the necessary assistants to get those waiting lists down. That also has a knock-on impact on Letterkenny University Hospital. I wish to get a sense of what is happening and why it is happening.
We are very proud in Donegal that we have the strongest level of home care assistance delivered directly by the State through the HSE and that is the way we want to keep it. My concern is that there is an agenda to privatise the service in Donegal, that is, to hold back recruitment in the public system and secure the services of private providers. I am aware of incidents in Donegal where the HSE has had to step in af…
I will continue to monitor this closely because it is clear that in recent years there has been an agenda at senior level in the HSE for a sneaking privatisation of the service in Donegal. In a response to a parliamentary question, it was confirmed that the use of private providers increased from 13% to 19% in one year. I am clear that recruitment through the HSE for home care assistants is being held back by policie…
159. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when he will request that the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, draft a follow-up report on construction costs for the defective concrete blocks grant scheme, considering that the last one was almost two years ago and costs have considerably increased in that period. [17183/26]
The Minister will know that his predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, asked the SCSI for the costs of building a typical home in the areas affected by defective concrete blocks. That was two years ago and the costs have increased substantially. That means the gap between what the State will pay families through the grant scheme and the actual costs is getting ever wider. Will the Minister ask the SCSI to get this done…
The Minister and his Department officials continue to insist the people of Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Clare and Limerick are receiving 100% redress based on SCSI costings. It should be remembered that does not include the foundations and other matters. This has to be based on real-world prices. The prices he is working off are at least two years out of date. Indeed, the data used in the March 2024 SCSI report are…
Please just accept our testimony. I can only speak with authority about Donegal but I listened to families in Mayo and Clare recently when they were before the Oireachtas housing committee. It is crystal clear we do not have anything near 100% redress in the west. That means the scheme currently benefits those of a certain age who can project-manage or can access €40,000, €50,000 or €100,000. The Minister heard me gi…
163. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when he will advance the plans to relocate the families at a location (details supplied), living in defective concrete block homes, away from the dangerous flood plain they were built on. [17184/26]
This issue relates to Elm Park in Buncrana. I thank the Minister for his engagement to date on the issue. He met with the families in Donegal. I thank the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy Moran, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. I welcome the announcement before Christmas that the Minister is agreeing to relocate the families. They have been waiting a long time, first, for co-oper…
The Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, worked with the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, who was in Donegal in recent weeks, where he met with residents and saw the condition of these houses. There is an urgency in that some of the houses are in appalling conditions, are clearly unsafe and families are still living in them. At the same time, they live on a dangerous flood plain. Of course, those houses should never…
They are not agreed.
When will the Taoiseach stand up for our fishing communities in Europe? He knows we are in an unprecedented crisis. There is a 70% cut in mackerel and 41% in blue whiting, primarily because of actions of countries like Norway which recklessly overfished. In recent days, Norway was granted 50,000 tonnes of blue whiting access in Irish waters and the Irish Government abstained. It did not stand up…
When will the Taoiseach stand up for Irish fishing communities? When will he do his job for our communities?
Last week, I received a letter from 21 school principals across Donegal. I sent it to the Minister and the Minister of State. I ask them to meet with a delegation of these principals. They have asked that the Ministers meet them in the school to see exactly what they are talking about. I ask them to read the letter because it specifically deals with the issues. It is not just about these letters that cause great dist…
I will get them sent to the Taoiseach.
I will get them to the Taoiseach. He has asked for them now.
I had the chance last December to lay a number of facts on the table. I am going to repeat them. We need to speak out with passion about the rottenness of the Common Fisheries Policy and, I am sorry to say, the rottenness of the approach of the European Commission to all of this. Let us talk about the big five. These are the Dutch corporations that dominate so much quota across the European Union. The Common Fisherie…
Where the hell is he? How can he not speak out about what is happening? Everybody in the industry across Europe knows of the domination of these corporations and the control they have over policy. Everybody knows that they were able to influence those governments to stop the Hague preferences being invoked by Ireland. That has been our right for decades. It was a protection because of the access we gave to our waters…
Hear hear.
Hear hear.
Colonialists.
I thank the Minister of State for his recent visit to Donegal and for meeting families who are affected face to face. I really appreciated that. We missed the Minister of State when he was out of the Dáil. I will be straight about that. I said it in front of the residents when we were in Donegal. He really cares about this issue. He has experienced it in his own community and seen it at first hand. We missed him.
I …
A letter from 21 school principals in Donegal has been sent to the Minister for Education and Youth and the Minister of State with responsibility for special needs education. They express their profound concern regarding the reality of special educational needs provision in our schools, in particular the operation of the SNA allocation model. I ask the Taoiseach to request a copy of the letter - I can send him one. I…