81. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he will acknowledge that the High Court has now ruled in multiple cases that wind turbine noise can constitute a nuisance, even where developments are compliant with planning conditions; and his plans to ensure that Ireland’s regulatory framework adequately protects affected residents. [60859/25]
TDs / Richard O'Donoghue
Richard O'Donoghue
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73
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
85,911
words spoken in the chamber
Across 385 contributions
252
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
37
topics asked about
Across 14 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
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Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Questions asked 73 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 385 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
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| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| January 2025 | 0 | 6 |
| February 2025 | 11 | 19 |
| March 2025 | 13 | 11 |
| April 2025 | 3 | 24 |
| May 2025 | 10 | 32 |
| June 2025 | 4 | 9 |
| July 2025 | 3 | 13 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 1 | 19 |
| October 2025 | 4 | 13 |
| November 2025 | 3 | 30 |
| December 2025 | 3 | 48 |
| January 2026 | 1 | 15 |
| February 2026 | 8 | 32 |
| March 2026 | 3 | 0 |
| April 2026 | 1 | 30 |
| May 2026 | 1 | 16 |
| June 2026 | 3 | 32 |
| July 2026 | 0 | 4 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| September 2026 | 0 | 18 |
| October 2026 | 1 | 11 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 157 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 Limerick County 29 November 2024 to now
- party Independent Ireland 29 November 2024 to now
At the outset, I am not against wind energy. I am against the health implications of wind energy. Will the Minister acknowledge that the High Court has now ruled in multiple cases that wind turbine noise can constitute a nuisance, even where developments are compliant with planning conditions, and confirm the specific advice the Department received from the Office of the Attorney General in March 2024 regarding this …
How many High Court judgments will it take before the Government accepts that wind noise is causing health implications? People and communities in Limerick are taking up their own alliances because of the health implications where wind turbines are put up. Wind turbine planning applications are being lodged at a massive rate. The wind turbines that have gone up to date never involved health organisations. The HSE was…
I thank the Minister. Again, we are talking about health. The other side of things is that given the number of wind turbines that have been pushed through planning at the moment, it is not about wind energy. Cian Murtagh is a lecturer in Sligo and he has looked at Ireland’s energy mix. For the month of October, we paid €115 million in curtailment costs and over €300 million in the last three months, taking money from…
Offshore.
But we need offshore.
I raise UHL. We will start off on a positive note. The Minister opened the 96-bed unit in UHL on 13 October. We waited a year and a half for the HIQA report but we have it now. It states exactly what I and others have been saying here for years about UHL. It came out with an A, B and C plan. My view is we need A, B and to work for C. Option A would involve expanding the capacity at UHL. Option B envisages the ED stay…
That is right.
I thank the Tánaiste. It is unusual we are 100% agreed on both sides of the House that this needs to happen. This is a health emergency and under Covid guidelines we were led to do an awful lot of things under health emergencies. We had John Wall with us yesterday as a patient safety advocate. We have an emergency. Why can we not use emergency powers and legislate that this happen now? We have the commitment of the H…
Nobody wants to see people with addiction punished while the dealers get rich. In Limerick, Sr. Concilio in Cuan Mhuire has done an amazing job trying to help people with addiction. The centre has opened a farm and a garden centre to reintroduce people into the workplace. She has done brilliant work. A former hurler from Limerick, Ciaran Carey, has counselling services doing the same, using people who have suffered f…
It is not and putting out such a statement about Limerick does not help.
Sorry, we are here to help people. Branding Limerick like that is not nice. We are here to help people all the time, and Deputy Sheehan should not say such things. The whole country has a drug problem. Naming one place by itself is not right
I support the motion. The Minister spoke about the Act. The Act should be something the Government reflects on when it comes to presidential election campaigns. This motion is about having people on the island of Ireland be allowed to vote in presidential elections. I am old school. For me, there are 32 counties in Ireland, not 26. I will never change from that. Out of respect for everyone in this country, I will say…
I have some great friends with me today. I have been involved in Greybridge classic club for the past 15 years. The youngest member, Louise Crowley, is in the Gallery and she is the Limerick IFA chairperson - the youngest chairperson in the organisation. She has been a member of the club since it started and is also its secretary. The Macra na Feirme president and the outgoing president, Elaine Houlihan, are here as …
I will supply his tractor.
What about the presidency?
I thank the Taoiseach for his vague answer. The bottom line is the taxpayer will pay regardless. The vintage clubs are very important to me for one reason along with the men's sheds and women's sheds. The vintage clubs look after our ancestors and our past and use it for the present to raise funds. The Taoiseach is right. I did leave Fianna Fáil a good number of years ago and am now a member of Independent Ireland, a…
So the taxpayer-----
It is to do with charity and raising funding.
I acknowledge and welcome the 9% VAT rate for hospitality, hairdressers and all the others concerned. However, when other budgets are put in place, measures apply straight away. If the price of diesel is going up, that can be done tonight, but when it is a cut in the VAT rate, people have to wait to July. A lot of businesses will not be in business by July because they were banking on the VAT rate coming down to sust…
Fianna Fáil was once known as the workers' party; Fine Gael was once known as the farmers' party. Both parties have turned their back on the hard-working people who supported them and put them back into this House. They put the two fingers up to them and told them, "We don't care." Constituents voted for those parties or voted for me and I work for all of them. I work for everyone. I do not differentiate between part…
People may know me as passionate. I am actually speechless after seeing what the Government has brought into the budget, and I am not often speechless. I also feel empathy for the people who work in this country. I have had families on to me again today saying they were hoping they would have something in this budget that would help them to survive. Instead, the more they work - and they are taking on extra hours - t…
Independent Ireland has looked for the means test to be abolished. It is not about the means test; it is about care. If we are practical about it, an awful lot of people could be outside the threshold because they may have been left something by a loved one or their partner might be working two jobs to try to put food on the table and it puts them outside the means test threshold. If we look at areas where we have no…
On 1 May, I asked a parliamentary question about the cause of the high volume of refunds in employment permit applications, which was resulting in delays. People are able to get permits, on the one hand, from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment but, on the other side, at the Department of justice, there are delays for visas. The left hand is doing one thing and the right hand is doing another and we ha…
I am delighted to welcome the Ryder Cup to Ireland and that it will be in Limerick, the real capital of Ireland, as I call it. We now have a world-class golf tournament in Ireland. I have to thank the McManus family for what they have done not only for Limerick but the rest of the country and for what they have invested in this country and in Adare, Country Limerick. I am delighted for the people of Adare that it wil…