I will cover some of the comments those on my right made. They talked about Donald Trump coming to the country and said that some people went to meet him. I have no problem meeting Donald Trump. As a public representative, I would meet him because of 300,000 jobs in this country. If you multiple that by two or three, up to 1 million people are employed in this country as a result of American investment. That is why I…
TDs / Richard O'Donoghue
Richard O'Donoghue
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
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
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 73 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 385 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| 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
The Deputy has had his time.
The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach's party had a good old swing at us as well, so I will comment on it and its support of carbon tax. His colleague spoke a while ago. When the Labour Party was in government, it introduced water charges and property tax. It then cut child benefit, rent allowance and fuel grants and supported the USC. These are the same people who are trying to lecture me here to…
All they are good at is taxation. They talked about electric vehicles and that we need to change to them. They never mention that electric vehicles are twice as heavy on tyres as normal cars and twice as heavy on road surfaces. If you replace a battery in an electric vehicle, it will cost you €20,000 to do so when it has been driven for 200,000 km. They never mentioned about the cobalt that goes into these batteries.…
We can pass whatever legislation we like in this Dáil but first we need to have the people to carry out the assessments to support the legislation we are putting through. We are able to bring in all this different legislation but we are not able to follow through on it, which is disappointing. We have the housing crisis. Students are qualifying in different fields within medicine and then have to leave the country be…
The reason we are here today is that the Government, backed up by a couple of Independent Members who keep voting with it, is taking a euro in tax on every litre of fuel. What does that do? It is a circular economy. Many depend on fossil fuel vehicles, which make up about 80% of the vehicles in this country. These taxes put up the price of food, materials and transport for everyone. The only realistic thing to do is …
Today, I am raising the issue of wind farms and their health implications. A number of weeks ago, I was copied into a serious letter from the Communities and Environmental Protection Alliance, CEPA, to the Minister of Health. I am informed that there has been no response, not even an acknowledgement. Representatives from five counties are in the Public Gallery today. They are from Limerick, Mayo, Kilkenny, Wicklow an…
I thank the Tánaiste. The issue here is the inconsistency. In the Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown area, all noise complaints received by the local authority are investigated by the HSE. Residents in Offaly and Limerick are wondering why this other approach is being taken in their case and why it depends on what county one lives in whether one gets investigations. It is inconsistency that is going on here. Why should access to…
Will the Tánaiste meet us?
I am the Chairperson of the budgetary oversight committee. We have had many witnesses in over the past number of months. Yesterday, we had witnesses in who agreed with exactly what I and Independent Ireland have been saying. The Department of Finance does not talk to the Department of enterprise. The Department of Finance is responsible for divvying out the moneys but they all work separately. When it hands out bits …
At present, there are 14,621 gardaí.
There are 621 in training at the moment. The problem is that 180 are resigning outside of retirements. Why does the Taoiseach think this is a problem? It is recurring. We have that amount in training but 180 are resigning every year. That trend has been there over the last two years. Why does the Taoiseach think that is?
Yes.
Young gardaí-----
I thank Deputy Charles Ward for all the work he has done on this. What is the Government guilty of? I sat on the housing committee last term. It is on the record of that committee that I highlighted to the Minister, and all the various witnesses and so-called professionals brought in by the Department, the issues with blocks, foundations and the weight loads on foundations under the new regulations that you try to me…
In the base of the redress scheme and the different grades that people get in redress, there is an issue turning up at the moment-----
The scheme for pyrite. There are different grades. People might get grade 1 or grade 4 or 5. One of the grades is where people are told their roof is okay but their block walls have to come out. What people are being asked to do is prop up the house and take out the walls down to the foundation level, which means the footpaths and floors collapse. It is specialised work. When we work out the economics of it, we do no…
It is common sense.
We have experience.
We have 35 years' experience. Come on.
LGBT and Pride. Pride stands for "respect". I listen in this House daily and people say "far left" and "far right" and brand everything. What is wrong with just being yourself? Why do you have to be branded? Respect means that if somebody is gay, lesbian or trans, you give them respect and let them give you respect. I do not believe in all of this branding. They are people, human beings. That is what they are.
I hav…
AI in some instances scares me and in some instances it is good for different parts if it is used correctly. How many people go on their phone and then no longer know what is actually factual or not? My concern about AI is that we need to get on top of it fairly quickly. I was in the Central Bank on Tuesday for a visit with the budgetary oversight committee. There are concerns about AI in this country. Now we do not …
Good man, but paper does not mean that you have got it in front of you. If you have the pen in front of you, that is what makes the difference.
A lot of the time I do not come into this House with paperwork because I do not want it to be shown that it was AI-generated. What you are looking at when you look at me is me. What comes out of my mouth is what I researched myself. I have never used AI.
Something was sent …
In 2021, the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act was introduced by the Government. It was supported by Sinn Féin and introduced the carbon tax. Today, yesterday and the day before Sinn Féin were saying they are against carbon tax. Yet, they voted for it in the climate action Bill.
They are now coming out saying they are against these things. Every week they jump up and down here saying they are against it but last week they decided they were going to fight for it. Deputy Daly is right; I was not here last week for one reason-----
I was the first person to come to the Dáil in a truck protesting against carbon tax. The Deputies must not have been here that time because they never came out to the truckers.
They never came out to the people on the protest but they came out the last day to support them. That is what they did.
Now, getting back to this-----