Proposals were reportedly brought to Cabinet this week to criminalise people who wear face coverings on protests. Anyone wearing any type of face covering, be it a disabled person wearing a medical face mask or a religious person wearing a face covering, can be ordered to remove it by the Garda.
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
Okay. I am interested to hear the answer. What was reported is that if people refuse to remove a face covering they could then be arrested. It certainly seemed like an attack on the right of people to protest, particularly disabled people, who subjected the last Government to one of its biggest defeats in terms of a row-back on the Green Paper on disability reform. Many of them - people who are immunocompromised - ha…
Last week I asked for a debate on the Government's housing policy or lack of it. Since then, the Government's credibility has collapsed even further with the debacle over the housing tsar. We need an emergency debate this week on housing. Does the Government agree that it is untenable for Brendan McDonagh to remain as head of NAMA when he has been using different aliases in legal documents submitted to the Land Regis…
Last week, Israel attacked an aid flotilla bound for Gaza with drones in international waters against people who were bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. That is shocking, but for Israel it is not unprecedented. Fifteen years ago, ten people were killed aboard the MV Mavi Marmara as part of the freedom flotilla. Fourteen years ago, when I was an MEP, I participated in the freedom flotilla. Our first boat was sabotaged…
8. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the interactions he or his Department have had with the owner of a business (details supplied) since taking office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21247/25]
The last couple of weeks have seen the Minister abandon a series of promises to workers. He abandoned the promises to extend sick leave and introduce a living wage. Incredibly, he is refusing to scrap sub-minimum wages. People watching this performance might ask if the Minister is following the lead of the most anti-trade union boss in Ireland, Michael O'Leary, who launched the Minister's election campaign last Novem…
At the Minister's campaign launch, Michael O'Leary stated:
We need a government that delivers for enterprise ... it’s vital that we elect a government that gets shit done ... I can think of nobody here, certainly in the current government, who demonstrates more action, more energy ... than Peter Burke.
That is more action and more energy for enterprise. Is that why the Minister is doing what he is doing? Is he foll…
Delayed.
Saying that is a fact does not make it a fact. The Government has been in power for three or four months. It has not progressed workers' rights at all. It has taken a series of negative steps and reneged on the commitments to extend sick leave and establish a living wage and on the vote of the previous Dáil to abolish sub-minimum wages. I will focus on the latter. The Dáil voted two years ago to abolish sub-minimum w…
That is a delay.
No, it is not.
It is not-----
In 2029.
One of the first protests I went on was to demand the introduction of a minimum wage.
At that stage there was no minimum wage. Bosses could pay what they liked. That campaign was won and 25 years ago a national minimum wage was introduced. Scandalously, the minimum wage included provision for legal discrimination against young workers. That inequality continues to this day. Around 15,000 young people in this country…
I do not think it is credible to suggest that this Government is anything other than anti-worker. Look at its actions in just the past few weeks - the delay of a promised extension of sick leave. I remember debating the sick leave legislation here. I remember us saying the extension of time should be in the legislation and the Government saying, “We do not need to write it in, but do not worry, we will extend it.” Th…
The young person has to pay the bill as well. What about them?
During the general election campaign, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promised to abolish the means test for the carer's allowance. The programme for Government contains a commitment to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. Will the Minister tell us in which budget the means test will be abolished?
It was interesting that the Minister used slightly different language in his answer from what is contained in the written replies to parliamentary questions. In written replies the Minister states that the programme for Government has set out a timeline that commits to significantly further increasing the income disregards. He left out, quite understandably, the point about having a timeline because, presumably, he k…
I worry that this is one of those promises made during the general election campaign that is then watered down in the programme for Government and that will end up falling by the wayside. In the past few weeks, a number of commitments made by the Government have been abandoned under the guise of the Trump tariffs, by saying that now is not the time for extending. I worry that that is where we are going to end up. The…
It is a shame that the Minister is not here. I hope he is listening. I do not know whether he or the Minister of State is doing the sum-up and reply at the end. I have some questions for him.
This morning, I asked what interactions the Minister had with Michael O'Leary, who launched the former's election campaign, since taking office. I have just received the written answer, and the interesting thing is it states he…
According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, states parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live. Think of the multiple ways in which those rights are denied to children in this State. I refer here to the 100-plus who were left wit…
In December 2015, Aoife Winterlich, who was 14 years of age, went on a trip organised by Scouting Ireland. They went to Hook Head, where there was no assessment of the risks although it was a very stormy day. There was no guidance, no warning and nobody watching. Aoife was swept out to sea and died. It took eight years and the bringing of a court case for Scouting Ireland to finally acknowledge liability in this circ…
They have acknowledged that.
I was bemused to listen to the Taoiseach painting his housing policy as a success rather than a deep failure. Housing construction, social housing, affordable housing - every one of the targets is being missed, while 4,675 children woke up this morning in emergency accommodation. That will affect them for the rest of their lives but the Taoiseach does not seem to care because rents continue to rise, prices continue t…
----and landlords and developers profit. Can we have a debate on housing in this House or will the Taoiseach wait and delay the housing plan-----