I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 to improve the welfare of pigs by prohibiting teeth-clipping, tail-docking and castration, limiting the use of tusk reduction and regulating sow stalls and farrowing crates.
I start by thanking the National Animal Rights Association, NARA, especially Laura Broxson and Dr. Alice Brough. This important le…
TDs / Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,527
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
205,529
words spoken in the chamber
Across 1,276 contributions
383
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
314
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 1,527 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 1,276 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| January 2025 | 78 | 10 |
| February 2025 | 138 | 69 |
| March 2025 | 120 | 75 |
| April 2025 | 115 | 100 |
| May 2025 | 97 | 97 |
| June 2025 | 88 | 70 |
| July 2025 | 92 | 52 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 66 | 60 |
| October 2025 | 50 | 82 |
| November 2025 | 84 | 73 |
| December 2025 | 59 | 79 |
| January 2026 | 94 | 61 |
| February 2026 | 71 | 78 |
| March 2026 | 49 | 41 |
| April 2026 | 76 | 45 |
| May 2026 | 50 | 40 |
| June 2026 | 58 | 95 |
| July 2026 | 67 | 59 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| September 2026 | 30 | 23 |
| October 2026 | 45 | 64 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 977 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 South-West 29 November 2024 to now
- party People Before Profit-Solidarity 29 November 2024 to now
I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."
I welcome the long overdue publication of this report. AsIAm has pointed out that it is worrying to see references to amending the Education Act, which could delay the action we need to see. All parents know, and the Government acknowledges in all its statements, how crucial timely intervention is, but for many it is not delivered.
I will take the opportunity to raise an important related issue. It was referenced al…
128. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if he will abolish the TV licence and replace it with a tax on big tech companies to fund public service broadcasting. [35187/25]
The TV licence is a regressive, unjust tax.
The richest household in the country has to pay the same €160 as the poorest eligible household in the country.
Increasing numbers of people are voting with their feet and boycotting the TV licence. Will the Minister read the writing on the wall, scrap this regressive tax and replace it with a levy on big tech corporations?
I thank the Minister. I presume he accepts that the tax is deeply unpopular. Licence sales have plummeted since the Tubridy scandal and everything else that came out in terms of the behaviour of those at the top of RTÉ. In 2022, €950,000 was paid. This dropped to €825,000 in 2023 and €790,000 in 2024. This represents a drop of more than 155,000 households that are refusing to pay, either in protest or because they ca…
The Minister might tell us if considers all the countries across Europe that have abolished TV licences not to be constitutional democracies. Is the test of being a constitutional democracy having a TV licence? He might clarify that. I presume he is aware that just over one third of funding for RTÉ and public service broadcasting comes from the TV licence. It is not even where a majority of funding comes from. The Mi…
It sounds like the Minister is interfering now.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, schools organised shows of solidarity with Ukraine but when it comes to Israel's genocide in Gaza, some teachers are being silenced and their clothing choices are being policed. I contacted the Minister recently about Harcourt Terrace Educate Together National School where members of staff have been told not to wear their Keffiyeh scarves.
Keffiyehs are simple patterned fabric from the M…
This Bill is a very serious attack on freedom of speech and the right of people to protest. Mo Chara from Kneecap is being prosecuted in Britain for opposing the genocide and expressing solidarity with Palestine, and now the Government here is trying to pass legislation that would allow him to be prosecuted here too.
Section 3 of the Bill expands the legal definition of provocation of terrorist activity to include g…
Another year, another cursory debate and then another voting-through of draconian legislation tonight. I will speak against and vote against the legislation but the Government and the vast majority of the Opposition will vote in favour of curtailing basic civil liberties. The Special Criminal Court was established 53 years ago, supposedly on an emergency basis. The original emergency for which it was established was …
Over the weekend, the world’s biggest military power, under Trump, launched an unprovoked and illegal air assault on Iran. The Taoiseach has repeatedly refused to condemn this assault. I invite him again to condemn it now. We need to have a debate in this House on the US assault on Iran, the situation in the Middle East, and the imperative of defending our neutrality and ending the use of Shannon Airport by the US mi…
Last year, the International Court of Justice held that all states are under an obligation to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings and to prevent trade or investment relations with the occupied territories. There was no mention of an obligation just relating to goods. Instead, it was all trade and investment relations. The Government has in the past few months discovered some legal, or what it says i…
Will the Government lay the advice before the committee?
The Taoiseach will not condemn the US.
It is happening in our airspace.
3. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the Labour Employer Economic Forum; and when it will next meet. [32309/25]
The number one issue facing many workers is housing, and the Government has repeatedly claimed both that it will deliver new social homes and that the planning system is to blame for the lack of delivery so far. This month, however, funding for the delivery of almost 500 social homes has gone up in smoke. Almost 3,500 planned social homes, many with full planning permission, are in jeopardy now, facing cost reviews. …
19. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [33925/25]
I want to raise the poor state of healthcare for those suffering with allergies in this country. Many parents are forced to spend huge amounts to travel abroad to get their children the treatment they need. I spoke to a woman a few months ago who had to go to America for six weeks. She had to pay €8,000 for treatment. She was also out of work for six weeks and had to pay for accommodation. That is not unusual. A lot …
I found the “RTÉ Investigates” programme horrifying, obviously, and very difficult to watch. It was clear that the older people were not being treated as human beings, with decency, dignity and respect. Instead, many were being treated simply as a burden – a burden for whom there were not enough gloves or incontinence pads. They were treated like sacks of meat thrown on the chair, as was the case with one man. It is …
I want to thank all the participants in the Global March to Gaza, particularly the Irish ones, for the support we received from ordinary people in this country. I express my wish that everyone currently being detained by the Egyptian authorities is released, able to go home, and to continue to apply pressure to prevent the sort of scenes we saw yesterday where more than 50 people were killed by Israeli tanks while qu…
It is interesting in debates in the House and on the media how the Government will not own its own proposals. It tells us that what it is doing is going to increase investment in the rental sector and that will ultimately bring rents down. That is the underlying logic of what the Government is doing. However, it refuses to say the bit in the middle in terms of why this is going to increase investment in the rental se…