I thank the Minister for his reply but we are going backwards here. The review was concluded by his Department well over two years ago. We should have seen a heads of Bill at this stage. His predecessor, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, who I know the Minister works closely with, told this House a year ago that "we are nearly done in respect of the drafting of the heads of the Bill and I hope to be in a position to bring that…
TDs / Cian O'Callaghan
Cian O'Callaghan
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
896
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
123,606
words spoken in the chamber
Across 642 contributions
422
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
255
topics asked about
Across 19 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 896 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 642 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| January 2025 | 51 | 4 |
| February 2025 | 41 | 47 |
| March 2025 | 44 | 42 |
| April 2025 | 64 | 38 |
| May 2025 | 39 | 40 |
| June 2025 | 55 | 33 |
| July 2025 | 47 | 51 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 38 | 6 |
| October 2025 | 16 | 52 |
| November 2025 | 41 | 57 |
| December 2025 | 29 | 19 |
| January 2026 | 42 | 24 |
| February 2026 | 46 | 35 |
| March 2026 | 41 | 23 |
| April 2026 | 58 | 24 |
| May 2026 | 80 | 47 |
| June 2026 | 31 | 40 |
| July 2026 | 44 | 12 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 2 |
| September 2026 | 41 | 21 |
| October 2026 | 48 | 23 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 510 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 Bay North 29 November 2024 to now
- party Social Democrats 29 November 2024 to now
I thank the Minister. However, I do not understand how his predecessor, the current Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, who is perfectly competent and able, was in a position to tell the Dáil a year ago that the heads of Bill was almost ready to be published and he was hoping to bring it to Government very shortly. How was it possible for Deputy Donohoe to do that a year ago only for the Minister to now com…
Disability services in this country are chaotic and threadbare. Families of children with additional needs have to fight for the very basics. All they want for their children is to be able to access an education and appropriate services and a chance for them to fulfil their potential. The very first step for most is to get an assessment of need and there are now over 15,000 children who have been waiting more than th…
I asked the Tánaiste whether he would confirm what the Taoiseach said last week, which was that there had been indecision from the Government on this and that it could not agree over the past three years. I believe he implied in his answer that the Government had not been able to agree what to do. He is saying there need to be reforms to legislation but it is three years since the High Court judgment. That judgment w…
I recognise the work the Government has done in support for UNRWA and the International Court of Justice and in recognising the State of Palestine, which it did on this day one year ago. There is, however, much more that needs to be done. After the last 12 months, it is unclear how much longer the State of Palestine will actually exist on the map. An entire people, its culture and place are being methodically and sys…
This applies to all State institutions, including the Central Bank. We must act to stop this genocide. The Taoiseach must act and act now.
What is he going to do to stop the sale of these bonds?
I do not take away from anything the Taoiseach just said but I asked him about the sale of bonds being facilitated by the Central Bank of Ireland. It is very clear that these bonds are being used to fund the genocide. The Taoiseach has recognised that genocide is taking place and he has an obligation under the Genocide Convention to do everything he can to stop that genocide. The fact is that the genocide is being fi…
Will the Taoiseach do that? Will he answer that question? I am not taking from anything else he is saying or doing but in relation to bonds and the financing of this genocide, will the Taoiseach do everything he can to stop it?
It acts unilaterally.
The Taoiseach could ask the Central Bank to comply with an instruction on this.
It authorises sales.
What about the sale-----
Children's Health Ireland is in crisis. Another three members of the board have resigned today. A succession of scandals has cast serious doubts on its capacity to provide quality healthcare to children in this country. A common thread in each of the scandals is an almost complete absence of clinical oversight. Medically questionable and unethical practices proliferated under the noses of highly paid clinical directo…
We are talking about children, sometimes as young as the age of two and even younger, being operated on. What has happened is incomprehensible. When parents rang the phone line that was set up for them at the weekend all they were asked for was their contact details. None of the questions they asked could be answered by the people on the phone line. It is not an acceptable way to treat the parents.
The Taoiseach sai…
Regarding statements this evening that the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is doing on the external audit into Children's Health Ireland, there are no questions and answers as part of that business but we need accountability. Parents at the weekend were ringing the phoneline but could not get any answers to any questions they put. They just had their contact details were taken. We need the Minister this…
First, I pay tribute to the family of Shane O'Farrell, namely, his mother Lucia, his father Jim and his sisters, Aimee, Pia, Hannah and Gemma, who are in the Distinguished Visitors' Gallery. I also acknowledge the official apology from the Minister for Justice. The family have been waiting for 14 years for this apology and for answers to questions about the death of their son and brother Shane. The apology is a refle…
Cara Darmody is continuing her protest outside the Dáil today because nothing she has heard from the Government has convinced her to end it. Asked repeatedly yesterday if the Government would stop breaking the law, the Taoiseach could not even give that assurance. The Government does not seem to see the problem with this. It has access to State resources, can direct policy and can authorise hiring. It can fix this, y…
You are breaking the law.
That is an astonishing answer. The High Court judgment was more than three years ago and the Taoiseach has just now told us that the reason it has not been acted on or that the Government has not got its act together on this is that the previous Government could not agree on what to do. Is that the case? We have more than 15,000 children waiting for an assessment of need that they desperately need, beyond the six-mon…
Successive Governments have let children with autism and intellectual disabilities down in the worst possible way. Permanent damage is being caused to thousands and thousands of children. The fact this is happening is a national disgrace. Those are not my words but those of Cara Darmody, who joins us in the Gallery, who has begun a 50-hour protest over disability services outside the Dáil. Cara did not utter those wo…
The Taoiseach talks about progress and step-change but the HSE is saying that the shocking figure of more than 15,000 children overdue an assessment of need this year will be 25,000 by the end of this year. That is what is happening. He knows that early intervention is crucial for children. It makes a world of difference. It can mean the difference between children with the proper supports learning to talk, participa…
The Government has repeatedly stated that it does not want to see a drip feed of information about the audit of hip surgeries at the three children's hospitals but that is what we are getting. Any information about the scandal has had to be dragged out of the Government. Yesterday, responding to me, the Taoiseach confirmed for the first time that he expected the audit to be finalised next week. Why did it take so lon…
For parents and their families not to have information that they are seeking is hugely distressing for them. It is the least they deserve and expect. We know at this stage, from some of the information that has been drip-fed, that some of the recommendations in the draft audit are being implemented. Why can the Government not share with us all of the recommendations in that draft audit? It is already working on imple…
It is more than two months since my colleague Pádraig Rice first asked the Taoiseach about disturbing reports of an audit of hip surgeries on children at three separate hospitals. Back then, the Taoiseach said the audit process was in its final stages. That was ten weeks ago. The parents of the children involved have received no further information since. They have been told the audit is in its final stages for month…