I would not dismiss what the EPA says and I have not done so. I welcome the work it does. We are taking measures that have been agreed at Cabinet and among Government members and TDs, such as Deputy Boland, who support the Government. We have changed the retrofitting grants, which has made a massive difference not only from a climate perspective in reducing energy use but also in terms of cost and affordability. Sinc…
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
I thank both Deputies. I will try to deal with both of their interventions. Deputy Boland can be assured that everything we do is to try to accelerate the actions we are taking in relation to climate. It is the number one crisis worldwide. Ireland, as a country, has shown that it is able to pivot and change quite quickly. I used the example earlier that we have doubled wind capacity in under ten years. In 2015, there…
Hear, hear.
I thank Deputy Smith for raising this important matter. The Bill to which he refers, the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2025, is being progressed by my Department as part of a wider programme of work to strengthen the resilience of Ireland's electricity network in the context of climate change and increasingly severe storms. Lessons have and must continue to be learned from Storm Éowyn. We have seen si…
I agree with the Deputy. This is a priority. It needs to move quicker but there are a lot of stakeholders. To be frank about it, this is being made more complex than it should be because we are respecting the views of other stakeholders. We need to ensure the regulatory changes needed for new forestry are in place because the State is not going to be able to, nor should it, manage every private forest or private piec…
Absolutely.
The work of our emergency services is exceptional. We saw the difficulties they had to operate under following recent storms, including Storm Chandra and Storm Éowyn.
This work needs to be concluded. There is complexity in it. I hate even using the word because it seems like it is an excuse, but there is genuine complexity here. It involves updating legislation but also updating the operation and management of fores…
Five phase 1 offshore projects are currently in planning, as the Deputy will be aware, off our east coast, with planned capacity of 3.8 GW. All five have submitted planning applications and first determinations from An Coimisiún Pleanála are anticipated on at least two of these by the end of this year, with the others to follow in 2027. The reason for that is they received detailed requests for further information, p…
To be fair, on the Deputy's first point, that is acknowledge by what was then An Bord Pleanála and is now An Coimisiún Pleanála. Certainly, those were the first type of projects that they ever had to deal with. I agree there are learnings and they have learnt from them. Second, the planning environment is different now. New applications will come under the Planning and Development Act 2024, which sets strict timeline…
Ports will be critical. In the coming couple of weeks, certainly before the recess, we will be bringing the new national ports policy to Cabinet. A lot of work has gone into it, and fed in by stakeholders as well. The east coast will be very important on that. That will come to Cabinet and then we will publish it. That will go out for consultation and every party and all stakeholders will get to see it.
Right now, B…
We have discussed a number of measures this morning, including directly funded retrofitting for families and the grants we can provide to reduce energy usage. Those measures are good for our climate because they reduce emissions and they reduce costs for households. We have been able to retrofit approximately 264,000 homes so far. Earlier this year, the Minister of State and I, along with our team, looked at the gran…
On the warmer homes scheme, and I listened to the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach's intervention on that, approximately 34,000 homes have been fully retrofitted with 100% grants. It is a great scheme, but waiting times are too long. To be fair to the SEAI, as Deputy Murphy said, it has submitted an action plan. I have a meeting later this afternoon in that regard to see how we can speed that up. We have made two specific cha…
The meat of that report will feed into our budget considerations and deliberations. I expect to have that by the end of July this year. We have done a lot of work on it. It looks at some potential structural changes and short-, medium- and longer-term measures, as well as further improving measures that are in place.
We know we are not in the position we want to be in with regard to energy costs. That is why it is s…
I move:
That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport pursuant to Standing Orders 103 and 188.
I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
I am pleased to introduce the Dublin Transport Authority (Amendment) Bill 2026 for the consideration of the House. As Deputies will be aware, the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, as originally enacted, provided for the establishment of the Dublin Transport Authority, DTA, and set out its role and functions to ensure the provision of an integrated transport syste…
It is not. I answered the Deputy in a parliamentary question recently.
That is not the case.
It is done.
The secondary legislation was signed last week.
Just read my press releases.
The Deputy could have saved himself three and a half minutes.
No.
They never do.
Never.
I am speaking on behalf of the Government on the Bill. I thank Deputy Daly for tabling it.
I will speak to the legislation and explain the rationale as to why we are opposing it, which we are doing on the basis that the CRU already holds significant existing powers to monitor, report and regulate gas and electricity suppliers. Additionally, as the Deputies will be aware, a review of the comprehensive suite of legisl…