It is a breath of fresh air when I hear that people over there agree to something I suggested five years ago. One Member said he is a young person representing Fianna Fáil representing that generation. I have four sons. I started out in Fianna Fáil, until it tried to put me in cotton wool and would not let me speak. The Deputy is part of the Government that is part of the problem because it did not listen. It is now …
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
However, I will look at it and support the people from Clare. The lads are all singing from the one hymn sheet now and they are agreeing on it.
They will go home and tell their constituents that they spoke up for them today.
However, they did not listen for five or six years to the people with experience who could have helped to address the problem. As I have said, I will give them praise all day, every day, if they deliver what we have asked.
I am delighted that the Government is now taking the advice of an Independent who is giving it the roadmap so it can deliver infrastructure, on budget and on time. I am delighted that the Deputies are speaking from my book. They might bring this to their parties and drive it home. I will provide the rocket they are looking for, and as Deputy Crowe said, he can light it but he would want to light it under Fianna Fáil …
I said to the Minister earlier that I would pray if somebody would start to listen and I am going to give him a small bit of prayers. This is from the point of view of the part in the Bill that brings in developer-led infrastructure. Why am I so glad that is going to be introduced and that Government is looking at and encouraging this? I will tell you why. When you bring a business model into a development, you can t…
I welcome any additions to the scheme but the scheme is not right. The scheme we are talking about includes counties Limerick, Clare, Sligo, Donegal and Mayo and other areas. The latest data shows that 3,022 homeowners are at various stages of the scheme. Of those, 326 applicants have completed remediation works with a further 1,057 applicants having notified their relevant local authority. I welcome the 10% increase…
What cost would the Minister of State put on life? That is the question. If it was in different circumstances and the Minister of State needed something, what cost would he put on his own life?
When it comes to our search and rescue personnel, all I can say is "Thank you." They are absolutely unbelievable in what they do. If they work for 24 hours, that must be recognised. The Government is brilliant at putting in p…
I move:
That Dáil Éireann:
acknowledges that:
— the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended, was enacted to give effect to the European Union's Whistleblowing Directive and to protect persons who, in good faith, report wrongdoing in the public interest;
— despite these statutory protections, numerous whistleblowers have faced retaliation, career destruction, delay or suppression of their disclosures through mi…
Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.
Before I start off, I thank John Campbell, Mark Nolan, Emma Corrigan, my colleagues here in Independent Ireland and, most of all, the whistleblowers who gave us the details and information on this to make sure that we could bring a Private Members' Bill to the Government on which it is after delivering 20 minutes of waffle outside of what we were talking about.
I want to make quite clear what we are looking for is a…
A letter was sent from Revenue's VAT interpretation and litigation branch of its taxes policy and legislation division to the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, stating that broiler-house chickens must be registered for VAT this year. Revenue is now saying they do not have to be registered but the Department of Finance is saying they do. A total of 83% of broiler-house chickens are on farms that are subject to zero VAT.…
Yes.
I will send the Taoiseach the details.
I will start with a headline from the Irish Examiner that ran "HSE warns it cannot fill vacancies even with agencies as staff shortage crisis deepens". We are talking about health insurance and the rising cost of it. Why do we have such a shortage in the HSE? Why are private hospitals being built and providing a service efficiently, with efficient staffing? We see the 96-bed unit open in Limerick, which I welcomed. T…
I have employees. If I was in any other county, including Donegal, I would get paid an awful lot more for doing what I was doing than I am paid for doing what I do here. The reason I am here is to protect people. It is not about money. It is about protection and putting in place procedures using the experience I have as a taxpayer and an employer who has had employees all his life. We are here to protect people and t…
You should not because I had seven minutes as well. I will have to teach the Chair how to read the clock.
Exactly but that is what I do. I am sorry. Seven and seven is 14. I think that leaves me about two minutes.
I will conclude on this. I am offering the Government assistance. I am offering to simplify and to allow the Government to spend money with accountability to deliver services so that it can help the vulnerable people in this country.
In November 2021, I brought a truck in here to Leinster House for the same reason we are talking on this today, for the road hauliers. At a time of crisis in this country, they travelled the roads to make sure that we had food and energy in this country.
I have a letter from Martin Ryan & Sons Transport, a big haulage company in Cappamore in County Limerick and I will give a small piece of it. It contains a summary …
They are now driving down the middle of the road. There is plenty of room for biodiversity inside the ditches around the fields. It is the law that anyone in this country should be able to travel in it safely.
Today, we are looking at somebody in the Chair who has driven trucks and was part of the haulage industry. For God's sake, the Minister of State is partly responsible for the costs of truckers and his Governme…
The Minister came to Limerick and we opened the 96 beds. I welcomed it. We now have options A, B and C, which we were looking for in Limerick for the care of the people of the mid-west. Developers have come to us saying that if the State does not have the money to build the facilities, they will build them for it and sell them back for €1 after 35 years. The reason I am saying this is that I hope our new Minister for…
When people came here from Ukraine, the Irish people opened their houses and their hearts to help them. Many people from Ukraine have actually integrated and are staying here. They are working, contributing and paying tax here. Many people of different nationalities have immigrated into this country from Poland and other countries. They are now part of our workforce. They are now working here. They came here through …
Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
I am going to start with the auto-enrolment pension scheme. A pension scheme is good if it is introduced at the right time. To get down to brass tacks, for those who do not know, auto-enrolment means 1.5% for an employer and 1.5% for an employee. After six months, the employee can opt out of the 1.5% if he or she does not want to pay it.
Is there any extra benefit for somebody in their 40s, 50s or 60s? What about pe…
Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Hear, hear.
I will start with insurance and insurance fraud. Insurance fraud is being paid for by all the rest of the people who are trying to get insured. Let us say a person is trying to insure their vehicle in Limerick, Tipperary, Cork or Clare. If we look at the same vehicle across the different counties, it seems to be the insurance rates are higher where the cities are. We did a small synopsis with a Toyota Corolla. We too…