The NTA's transport strategy for the greater Dublin area sets out the framework for transport investment across the region from 2022 to 2042. The strategy includes delivery of the Navan rail line between 2031 and 2036, subject to planning and funding approvals. The plan is currently on target.
It is anticipated that a public consultation on the route options for the Navan rail line will take place in the middle of t…
TDs / Darragh O'Brien
Darragh O'Brien
Minister for Climate, Energy and the EnvironmentMinister for Transport
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
168,229
words spoken in the chamber
166,330 as a minister, 1,899 as a TD
323
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
Members of the Government answer parliamentary questions rather than ask them, so this page lists none of theirs.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 680 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 30 |
| March 2025 | 29 |
| April 2025 | 54 |
| May 2025 | 22 |
| June 2025 | 59 |
| July 2025 | 4 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 44 |
| October 2025 | 5 |
| November 2025 | 73 |
| December 2025 | 2 |
| January 2026 | 43 |
| February 2026 | 55 |
| March 2026 | 33 |
| April 2026 | 77 |
| May 2026 | 11 |
| June 2026 | 82 |
| July 2026 | 2 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 49 |
| October 2026 | 6 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 529 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Dublin Fingal East 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Transport 23 January 2025 to 1 June 2025
- office Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications 23 January 2025 to 1 June 2025
- office Minister for Transport 2 June 2025 to now
- office Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment 2 June 2025 to now
The Deputy is right and I have no issue whatsoever with him raising this matter regularly. I do not want any slippage on it. The Navan rail line will be absolutely transformational in terms of quality of life, the environment and the economy. It will be a major piece of infrastructure to deliver. All I am interested in doing is making sure we hit those timeframes. In the NDP, there are major projects like MetroLink w…
The Deputy is right; we can control the controllables. It is funded right the way up to planning and we will get it through planning. We often talk about the NDP going to 2030. Of the €104.25 billion investment, one quarter of that is for public transport. If we look out to 2035, the figure is €245 billion. Thanks to the hard work of our people and good economic management, we will have the capital to actually delive…
Deputy Dolan and I have discussed this route before. The Department of Transport, the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are acutely aware of this. We have seen good increases across the rural transport network and they are very important links. I have mentioned to other Deputies and colleagues that when we look at public transport usage, we see that 363.5 million people used it last year. People are respondin…
The Deputy has been and remains a very strong advocate for improving public transport in his constituency and the Galway area. I commend him on that and I will work with him in this regard. Thankfully, the Government, of which he is a member, is investing in public transport at a rate never seen before. What really pleases me is the investment in our regions as well. It is not east coast-centric or Dublin-centric whe…
At the end of quarter 1 when we have the submissions back, we will have a look at it. One thing is, with the PSO, which underpins many public transport services because we have expanded them so greatly, myself and the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, were able to secure a significant increase in the base in the PSO. This still means we have to manage new routes in the context of our overall allocation.
The point …
I thank Deputy O'Connell for raising this really important issue in terms of the extension of service operating hours and the BusConnects network redesign. As she is no doubt aware, it is a transformative programme of investment in our bus system aimed at improving public transport across the city by strengthening the existing system through enhanced services with high-frequency spines and new local orbital and radia…
Those 15 routes I referred to are up and running. They are 24-hour routes. Going back five years, we did not have any 24-hour routes. The Deputy is right that we need to support the economy. More people would go out in our city if it was easier to access. It is getting better. Of course we are looking for other opportunities for routes, with more 24-hour routes. Obviously they have to be paid for too. I mentioned in …
We have to recognise that, as our population is growing, our system is growing too. The 363.5 million public passenger journeys last year is a record number. That is a good thing and I know the Deputy fully supports that. We will look at the specific issues with the routes the Deputy mentioned. I will feed that in and I am sure the Deputy has done so already. We will always have work to do to roll out those improveme…
I thank the Deputy. First, to correct him, we do not have the most expensive energy prices in Europe. Energy is still too costly and we have got to work on that. It is a priority for Government to bring about changes in that regard. Not all of it is within our control. That is why we need to continue to expand renewables, invest in our grid and drive affordability.
The programme for Government acknowledges the incre…
There is more work that needs to be done. That is why I established the national energy affordability task force. On what it has done so far, significantly before the last budget, it produced its interim report which guided us in the last budget. That work continues - things like looking at the structure of the bill and at how we actually pay for our grid investment. Critical to that, if we are to deliver permanent a…
At every meeting of the Energy Council I have attended, I have raised the issue of affordability. This is an issue that is prevalent in most EU states to varying degrees. I would like to see changes to the regulatory framework happen. Most of that needs to be driven at EU level. Issues relating to, for example, the Spark app need to be dealt with as well. Those issues are being looked at European level in relation to…
The CRU is responsible for grid connection policy. I will be working on reforming the CRU, something that is needed. We are also securing additional resources for the CRU, which I welcome.
The CRU was assigned responsibility for regulating the electricity sector following the enactment of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. The management of and matters related to connections to the electricity grid are functions a…
When Sinn Féin publishes its legislation, I will certainly look at it in a constructive manner. Data centres underpin an important technology sector in this country that employs hundreds of thousands of people. We have not had a situation, nor will we, where a data centre is connected ahead of a housing development. That just does not happen. It has not happened. We need to be at the cutting edge when it comes to tec…
I should have said in response to the Deputy's initial question that I welcome the publication of the grids package. The package speaks to the issue across all member states whereby we collectively invest in our grid system and look at expanding interconnection and see where the EU can assist in the context of funding between member states and third countries.
I again ask the Deputy to clarify the position of his pa…
It is critical that we get the legislation on private wires through. The Deputy is broadly supportive of what is proposed. It will make a significant difference here. The general scheme was approved on 16 December 2025. Since then, my Department has been engaging with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government, OPC, to begin drafting the legislation required to bring forth the private wires regime. I a…
The large energy user policy is really clear when it comes to the future growth of large energy users such as data centres. They will have to bring forward 80% of that energy as new renewable energy. We are the first country to do this. It will not be a drain on our existing resources. It will be about providing additional renewable resources.
I have been clear with regard to private wires. Private wires should be a…
Who said that?
To be clear, there will be a cost recovery on private wires by those who deliver them. There will be no increase in costs. That methodology will be worked through. That will be discussed as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny that the committee will be going through tomorrow.
In the context of the advancement in renewables, if I go back 15 years, only 13% of our electricity was generated by renewables. At the end o…
I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue regarding energy affordability. The latter is a priority for the Government. I answered a similar question from Deputy Daly earlier.
In June of last year, we established the national energy affordability task force. Its job is to identify, assess and implement measures in the short term that will enhance energy affordability for households and busine…
Energy costs are a real issue for households and small businesses in particular. I agree with the Deputy completely on that. We must do everything within our power to help to reduce those costs. With regard to real structural reform, she will know that the previous Government brought in energy tax credits. The State invested about €3.3 billion in that. That could not be sustained into the future. Instead of that, €3.…
I was in Offaly last week, where Bord na Móna is doing work and where Statkraft is developing new battery storage facilities, which are critical. We now have nearly 1.5 GW of battery storage across the country. This allows us to plan and to distribute our energy, particularly renewable energy, at appropriate times to deal with peaks within the system. That is being expanded further. Offaly has actually been a leader …
We are close.
I thank the Deputy for his question. The programme for Government commits to using the carbon tax as a key tool to encourage a shift away from fossil fuels and to invest in a sustainable future. There are three areas within my Department that received funding from carbon tax revenue in the most recent budget. First, in the residential and community retrofit area, the budget allocation for 2026 is a record €641 millio…
We will agree to disagree because the carbon tax is ring-fenced and is due to bring permanent savings to households and to families. I have given the Deputy real, verified figures in relation to the number of homes. A total of 244,000 homes in this country have been retrofitted with the support of the grants, which I have just changed again to make them more accessible, particularly to middle-income families, by brin…