We are targeting about 73,000 retrofits this year. That will bring our overall retrofit figure to well over 300,000. We are targeting 500,000 homes by the end of the decade. These are bringing about permanent changes for people. When we talk about energy prices - and I have already said this in response to Government and Opposition Deputies - we still have an issue, like many European countries, in relation to energy…
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
We fully support it now.
Before 2030.
We discussed this particular estate before. I will go back to something the Deputy mentioned that I did not get to answer - the Minister of State was answering - in relation to the North-South interconnector. There will be no further reviews. We have had four independent reviews. The North-South interconnector needs to proceed as planned and as consented to in the North and in the South. We have got to get on with it…
I do. To be fair to the Deputy, he has raised the issue of Carlinn Hall residents, who find themselves in a very difficult situation. I will say two things on it. First, the enhanced grant for heat pumps is significant. Parking the politics, it has gone up to €12,500 and that might make the pumps more accessible. Second, at the request of the Deputy in the Dáil and elsewhere, and of Deputy McGreehan and others, we as…
Sure. We are drafting the heat networks (miscellaneous provisions) Bill. That will establish the regulatory model for district heating, including communal heating systems, to ensure consumer protections are in place and to support the delivery of a vibrant district heating industry. There is a genuine opportunity in Ireland in district heating. There is only one scheme in the whole country. We have a pipeline of appr…
The programme for Government reaffirms Ireland's commitment to and our ambitious target of 8 GW of solar capacity connected to the grid by 2030, to assist with meeting the goal of 80% electricity demand supplied through renewables. Solar energy is now a growing source of electricity, with about 2.4 GW of solar power capacity in our grid and another 1 GW on rooftops. Going back 12 years, it was only 2 MW, so the growt…
I understand the points the Deputy has raised. Solar is a relatively new but growing source of energy in Ireland. It is clean, green, sustainable and cheap energy. We have fine agricultural land across the country too and we need to make sure that we can continue to sustain our own population and sustain the agricultural and horticultural sector through our exports as well. We export over 80% of what we produce, as t…
I will respond first to Deputy McCarthy, who tabled the question. Most of us are for sustainable, clean, renewable energy to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel.
We have had a good discussion and questions here about energy affordability. How do we drive that affordability? We drive that affordability by investing in our grid, by delivering projects like the North-South interconnector, by expanding our grid and gri…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 151 and 157 together.
We have a few questions on the SEAI grants, which we have revised to make them more accessible for families. More than 244,000 homes across the country have been retrofitted. We have invested approximately €1.7 billion in retrofitting to deliver permanent savings for households, to reduce emissions and energy use and to make homes warmer, safer and healthier. Th…
There are options there. For some people this had operated already. They can apply for themselves and have the grant refunded once the works are completed. They can apply themselves and have the grant paid to the contractor and have that net option. There are low-interest loans available as well. If someone wants to go for a deeper retrofit and to do more work above and beyond, they can apply for that also. What we w…
You can go in. If you have already received one grant for one cavity wall, you can go in for a second one. If you did not get window grants before, you can go back in for them as well, so you are not precluded. The low-interest loan is available in both urban and rural Ireland. It is available across all 26 counties of the Republic. I do not have the breakdown per county, but we could certainly get that information f…
The Deputy started asking his question. I did not pick up the start of it, so will he ask that again?
I thank the Deputy for raising this because it gives me an opportunity to look into it. I am a big supporter of active travel. This year, we will spend about €363 million across the country on active travel. We have already invested over €1 billion in these programmes.
I am aware that Tramore Valley Park is a tremendous facility but I am also aware of the frustrations raised by the Deputy, namely, that there is no p…
As I said, I am very supportive of these projects. I said Cork County Council area but it was Cork City Council area that was allocated €27 million this year under the NTA’s active and sustainable transport investment programme. What happens is the NTA will do the allocations. The draft allocations come to us. We have a very good active travel team within the Department but the local authorities are the critical link…
I am aware the Deputy met ESB Networks representatives today. I am glad he found that meeting informative and constructive. I will work with him on this specific issue. He articulated very well the impact it has on the communities he mentioned in Dunmore, Glenamaddy and elsewhere in Gaillimh. I will outline a couple of initiatives for the electricity grid and then get to the specifics in my second response.
It is im…
As I said, the meeting was important and gives the Deputy a clear view of what is happening. Work is under way in Tuam. Recent outages in the wider Tuam area and surrounding areas have primarily been caused by lightning events, timber vegetation, as the Deputy mentioned, wildlife and equipment failure on the network. There is a major programme of pole replacement. We have work to do on forestry corridors and timber c…
I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:
Dáil Éireann resolves that the Regulation of Drones Bill 2025 be read a second time on this day 12 months, to allow for the actions set out in the National Policy Framework for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and agreed by Government to be progressed and to allow for a full examination of the legal and policy implications of the Bill's…
I thank Deputy Ward. I assure him there are no delays. We published the review of the national development plan and we set out very clearly what projects we are going to deliver. I will go through some of the specifics. I thank Deputy Ward for the question and I thank him for acknowledging the number of homes being built in his constituency. His constituency colleague sometimes does not recognise it but it is good th…
To complement the national development plan, NDP, which we have published and in which we have detailed the projects, we have also published the capital investment plan for our grid, known as PR 6 or price review 6. That is up to €18.9 billion of investment in our grid between now and 2030. That takes into account all the major projects we are delivering. It also takes into account the new 300,000 homes we need to de…
We are. DART+ West and DART+ South West are interlinked and are both critical. I want to use this opportunity to set the record straight on this. Deputy Shane Moynihan, a constituency colleague of Deputy Mark Ward's, has been at the forefront in ensuring this project moves forward. DART+ South West must be advanced as it will provide the depot capacity for the new fleet on the south-west line as well. It also provide…
I thank Deputy Ahern for raising this question. Ministers of State, Deputies Canney and Buttimer, and I had good discussions on this with officials yesterday in preparation for questions here. This issue of the new LED lights and high intensity discharge, HID, headlights are known to provide greater brightness, improved colour rendering, increase efficiency and, in the case of LED in particular, longer performance li…
The Deputy is right but we do have a way of doing this now. As I mentioned, the UNECE Working Party on Lighting and Light-Signalling is going to establish that task force. That had to be done looking at European standards as opposed to British standards. As I said, I have discussed this with the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and he will be putting this on the agenda for work to be done at a European level because…
I will make a suggestion. It would be helpful to all of us working on this if the transport committee looked at it. Through the UNECE working group, it will be, and is, on the agenda. I do not have any data at this stage to support claims the changes in standards have led to road accidents, though I am not saying that has not happened either. The transport committee's input would be useful. It could get lighting expe…
I thank the Deputy for his question. He will be aware that BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in our bus network and system that will provide much better services across our cities, covering Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway. It is the largest investment in our bus system in the history of the State and is managed by the NTA. The city programmes cover the construction of new bus corrid…