I begin my remarks by expressing my sincere apology as Minister for justice to Sheila, Austin, Kieran and Oliver - the Stack family - for the various failings documented by the Taoiseach in relation to the Garda investigation into the murder of chief officer Brian Stack. Brian Stack served the State during a time of great challenge and as Sheila, Austin, Kieran and Oliver have vividly described, his life was characte…
TDs / Jim O'Callaghan
Jim O'Callaghan
Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
13
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
306,120
words spoken in the chamber
304,929 as a minister, 1,191 as a TD
360
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
8
topics asked about
Across 6 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 13 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 1,001 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 13 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 0 | 17 |
| March 2025 | 0 | 45 |
| April 2025 | 0 | 34 |
| May 2025 | 0 | 33 |
| June 2025 | 0 | 44 |
| July 2025 | 0 | 88 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 | 95 |
| October 2025 | 0 | 65 |
| November 2025 | 0 | 11 |
| December 2025 | 0 | 41 |
| January 2026 | 0 | 71 |
| February 2026 | 0 | 68 |
| March 2026 | 0 | 83 |
| April 2026 | 0 | 45 |
| May 2026 | 0 | 73 |
| June 2026 | 0 | 49 |
| July 2026 | 0 | 81 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 0 | 11 |
| October 2026 | 0 | 47 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 598 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Asked about similar topics
Not enough questions on record to compare.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Dublin Bay South 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Justice 23 January 2025 to 4 June 2025
- office Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration 5 June 2025 to now
I move:
That Dáil Éireann approves the exercise by the State of the option or discretion under Protocol No. 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to take part in the application of the following measure:
Regulation (EU) 2025/2082 of the European P…
I thank all colleagues for their contributions, to which I have listened closely. A number of issues were raised by Deputy Ward, and Deputy Kelly also raised concerns about the speed with which these motions have come before the House. I will try in future to see if there is a mechanism whereby I will be able to provide more time to colleagues to deal with such opt-ins. That is certainly the case when it comes to Art…
I move:
That Dáil Éireann approves the exercise by the State of the option or discretion under Protocol No. 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to take part in the application of the following measure:
Regulation (EU) 2023/2131 of the European P…
I move:
That Dáil Éireann approves the exercise by the State of the option or discretion under Protocol No. 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to take part in the application of the following measure:
Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Par…
I am sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler.
The first thing I want to do is thank Sinn Féin for putting down this motion, which the Government will be supporting. I also want to join my colleagues in expressing my condolences to the English family arising from the harrowing arson attack that was perpetrated on them. Part of the reason the Government is supporting the Sinn Féin motion is that it is e…
I thank the Deputy for his question. I, as Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, take extremely seriously any protected disclosures that are made to the justice sector. The Deputy’s question concerns members of An Garda Síochána and Garda staff. It is important to point out that a member of An Garda Síochána or a member of Garda staff has a number of options if he or she wants to make a protected disclosu…
The Deputy is going from the general to the specific. I am cautious about speaking specifically about individual protected disclosures but, obviously, I have examined the files on what happened prior to my arrival in the Department. My view is that my predecessor, Deputy McEntee, behaved in an entirely appropriate manner and followed departmental advice in respect of issues to which the Deputy is referring. As he wil…
If a protected disclosure is made to the Department or to me as Minister for justice, I will do what then Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, did in the first instance, which is refer it promptly to the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner. That is the important thing to do because it is not for me as Minister to determine the process of investigation or how a disclosure should be investigated. It is im…
-----and the person making the protected disclosure, who needs to engage with the investigator for the investigation to be concluded.
I thank the Deputy for his question. At the outset, I will identify the savings that have been made as a result of decisions and policies put in place by the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, and me. The Deputy will be aware that, in 2024, the expenditure on accommodation for Ukrainians by the Department was €1.16 billion. As a result of decisions made by the Minister of State and me, in next year's budget, we are lo…
When I am before the Oireachtas committee on justice, I am not before a court of law. The Deputy can ask me a question about anything and I will try to ensure I give him as much information as I can. What I said in the committee meeting was that I thought there were eight cases and certainly fewer than ten. I was not certain at the time. However, there are five cases. I am aware there is another case as well so it is…
Had I entered into the pre-contract agreements, the State would have been exposed to more than €100 million in payments. I did not go ahead with them because I had a fear at the time for public safety in respect of the issues. That is why I did not proceed with them. With the greatest respect, the consequence, although it might not have been the intention, of what I did was to save the State from having to spend more…
I thank the Deputy very much for his question. There is no plan for two prisons at the Glen in Cork city. There is a plan to extend the existing prison. We need greater prison capacity because we have overcrowding in our prisons. For the purposes of answering the Deputy's question thoroughly, I will give him the statistics from today. We have 5,444 people in custody in our prisons, meaning the system is at 114% of it…
I am not involved in the process that is ongoing in Cork City Council in terms of the register of protected structures. That is a matter for the councillors in Cork.
It is a matter for the councillors in Cork city. The fact that it had not been put on the register of protected structures to date is instructive. It is obviously not incompatible for the history of Cork Prison to be preserved while ensuring that we have an extension of the prison to deal with the overcrowding that exists therein. For people in Cork who find themselves in prison, it is important that we have appropri…
I thank the Deputy for quoting me. Unfortunately, people did not listen to me at the time because had it been the case that people had put the old Cork Prison on the register of protected structures, the Deputy would not have to raise the issues we are raising here today. I will listen to local people on it. There is a process ongoing in Cork City Council. That process has to play out.
In terms of the heritage of Co…
I have not finished yet.
The prison needs to be extended and there is an opportunity to do it promptly.
I thank Deputy Ó Cearúil for his question. The issue of Garda policing and Garda resources in Kildare North is an issue which the Deputy consistently raises with me.
At the outset, I, too, welcome the fact that resources were put in place in yesterday's budget for the recruitment of 1,000 new gardaí in 2027. I am pleased to say that we will get close to, if not reach, 1,000 gardaí recruited in 2026 because we have t…
I can appreciate and understand the Deputy's concern and wanting to have more gardaí in Kildare. Obviously, every Deputy in the House is saying that to me. I am dependent upon getting in more members of An Garda Síochána. The good news for the Deputy and, indeed, other Deputies is that recruitment is going extremely well this year. We have had three intakes so far in 2026. We had 215 trainees enter in the first intak…
There has been a lot of success by the Garda in Kildare North recently as well. In May, gardaí from Kildare North community engagement and Kildare North crime seized two semi-automatic pistols, 39 rounds of ammunition and a scrambler bike during an operation in Maynooth. If you look at Operation Thor, which began some ten years ago, there is a positive trend in Kildare. In the Kildare-Carlow Garda division, burglary …
With the Deputy, I had the privilege of meeting Sharon Lynn and Bryan Gallagher on 25 June of this year in respect of the Martin Lynn sentencing framework.
This issue arises from what are referred to as one-punch deaths, which are very tragic situations that develop when a punch is thrown and a person dies. The person who has been punched falls on the ground, hits their head and dies as a result of it.
The issues t…
My recollection of that meeting with Bryan and Sharon was that the inconsistency in the treatment of particular cases caused them concern. I understand the concern in that respect. Every case is going to be different. If somebody is charged with manslaughter, it is not like a murder charge where the person is convicted and there is a mandatory life sentence. A judge has to take into account a whole series of factors …
I will certainly continue considering how this matter can progress. As the Deputy identified, it is not just the criminal justice system that needs to be invoked in order to try to confront this problem. It is often the case that when a punch is thrown, the person does not realise that the punch is going to result in the death of the other person. To a large extent, it is the action or the consequence of a person get…