I know Inistioge well. I was with the Deputy all the way through until he got to "Circle of Friends" in the end. As regards this wastewater treatment plant, the Minister, Deputy Browne, has brought forward new measures to allow us to accelerate delivery of wastewater treatment plants above and beyond what the capital programme might set out through Uisce Éireann. I will speak to the Minister directly about Inistioge.…
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.
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Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 680 in all
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| April 2025 | 54 |
| May 2025 | 22 |
| June 2025 | 59 |
| July 2025 | 4 |
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| 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
I thank the Deputy for raising the case of Roxanne and the situation she is in. I will raise it directly with the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. The Deputy has said she has corresponded with the Minister. I thank Deputy Newsome Drennan for raising it here. I will speak to the Minister directly post this and make sure that she responds directly to the Deputy and to the family.
I am very sorry but I thought it was 10.26 a.m.
Deputy Ahern should not really have given way.
I thank Deputy Daly. First, this is an interim report. It outlines a lot of actions that are to be taken. Many have been taken. It was published in advance of the budget so that we could look at the short-term measures we could take. We acknowledge the increased energy cost pressures on businesses and households and commit to bringing forward measures to contain energy …
I have detailed some of the initial supports, which are targeted at households that need them. The retrofit programme is critical in helping us to decarbonise and making permanent savings for households and businesses. That programme will ratchet up even further. We established a task force in June this year. I always said there would be an interim report in advance of the budget to inform budgetary measures for this…
I think we agree this is an issue. I know this is an issue and the Government is aware this is an issue. We have already taken measures, which I outlined in my initial response, but we have to go further.
Work is happening at an EU-wide level. We have to look at the electricity market design and the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency. They are matters I have raised at European Council m…
I thank the Deputy. The programme for Government, Securing Ireland’s Future, recommitted to the national land use review. The first phase, led by the EPA, was published in March 2023 and focused on evidence gathering.
The final report for phase 2 - the report the Deputy referred to - is entitled A Living Land and has been received by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Heydon; the Minister of S…
I assure the Deputy I am not sitting on the report. It deserves scrutiny and that actions be taken from it. That is the work I am doing with the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. When we publish it, we will be able to show some exemplar projects in this country. Geraldine Tallon and her team looked across Europe at community-based, land-based projects and examples in Ireland came …
I appreciate that the Deputy is asking the question slightly in the dark because he has seen phase 1, but he has not seen the phase 2 report. I am genuinely anxious to get this report published so people can see what is in it. The Deputy mentioned the intensification of farming in certain areas. There are options in the report and certain scenarios are laid out in it, so it is not directing us as policymakers to do A…
As Minister, I meet with a range of stakeholders on important topics including energy prices, which is one of the most pressing. I can confirm that I have met with both the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which is assigned consumer protection functions under the Electricity Regulation Act, and energy suppliers since being appointed as Minister. On 26 September 2025, I met with the four biggest energy sup…
It is important to acknowledge that the largest energy retailer, Electric Ireland, did not increase its prices. I did discuss those very matters with the four companies in relation to their margins. The IEA report looked at the margin between retail and wholesale. It is not that the retail price is three times higher in Ireland than in other places. It is the margin. There are specific, unique characteristics to Irel…
The Deputy understands how the energy markets work. I am just stating it factually in relation to the time lag between wholesale price decreases and retail price decreases. There are unique attributes to Ireland. That said, energy costs are too high and we need to bring those prices down permanently. We are affected by geopolitical issues. Ukraine has had an effect, absolutely. Europe has had to pivot away, and right…
I acknowledge that the Deputy is not opposed to renewable energy. I note the recent High Court rulings related to private nuisance claims and related awards of damages connected with noise from particular wind farm developments.
We currently have over 5 GW of onshore wind generation and in 2024, wind accounted for 33% our electricity demand. This is related to the previous question on pricing which I have just answe…
Approximately 33% of our electricity comes through onshore wind energy. There are significant wind farm developments across the country, many of which do not cause any difficulty for any communities.
The same goes with solar. I have visited many of them as well. People need clean, green renewable energy that is affordable and affordability will be driven through renewables. That said, however, the noise element of t…
Now I am beginning to wonder whether the Deputy is for wind energy or not, following his last comments. The largest renewable provider of energy in the country is Bord na Móna. That is a company that has pivoted and is an example of how a company can transition from fossil fuels and be a leader in the delivery of renewables on land we own as a State. We see that when we drive through the country. Curtailment costs ar…
-----and that is critical. No, this is onshore.
We do of course but we need them to come through planning. We have five projects still in planning with An Coimisiún Pleanála and we are committed to offshore as well.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Ó Cearúil as an gceist thábhachtach. I thank him for this important question. Our climate action plan specifies a target of 5 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. That is not going to happen but we need to ensure those projects are in construction and that is down to planning. This target will be met in the early 2030s through a combination of projects from phase 1 and from within th…
There are a couple of things there. We have an independent planning process. Sometimes it is a frustration for us, in that we want to see things delivered quicker but that is the reality. We have had people who will object to offshore wind as well. We respect the right of third parties. However, we have done things well too. If you look at onshore, which I have mentioned previously, we are a European leader in the in…
Regarding MARA, which I established in my previous Ministry, it has statutory timeframes for decision-making. The problem is it is not leading them. That is a problem. It is working towards that. That means the connection policy from EirGrid will also be published on time. I attend the offshore wind energy task force and, for the first time, I brought this sector into the room. Therefore, it is not just Government ag…
The programme for Government acknowledges the increased energy cost pressures on households and businesses. I know, as I said earlier, that that is a real issue for people. The programme for Government commits to bringing forward additional measures to address those costs, and we have discussed that. I established a cross-government energy affordability task force. We identified particular measures, which we have dea…
Okay. I will come back in on some of that.
As I have said in the House before, I reject both the assertions from the Department of public expenditure and the comments made earlier this year on housing and data centres. They are not correct. Government policy is clear on this. We have a growing population and growing housing stock, thankfully. Price review 6, when published before the end of this year, will show how we will meet that future energy demand. We n…
As regards cost transparency, absolutely, and we need an analysis, and we are doing an analysis, of the costs that are there. I have met the four largest energy providers and have interrogated them on this very matter. We have to watch this very closely. Energy bills are too high in Ireland. They are too high right across Europe. In Cyprus, net energy costs are about 20% of average net pay, so we are not on our own o…
Tuigim an cheist. I want to put this in context. We go back to the Energy Security in Ireland to 2030 report that we published, and we published the Cambridge Economic Policy Associates report as well. We offered briefings on that too. A very clear risk was identified in that we have no gas reserve in this country. That is why we are proceeding with the floating storage and regasification unit, FSRU, which will be St…