91. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she is aware that taking a teacher away from a school (details supplied) will result in a 50% increase in class sizes from 22 students to 33 students; if she is aware of concerns of parents about the ensuing detrimental impacts on the education and well-being of their children; if she is aware of the impact this will have on autistic students; i…
TDs / Louise O'Reilly
Louise O'Reilly
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
769
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
109,508
words spoken in the chamber
Across 611 contributions. Plus 82 contributions from the chair, not counted
400
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
161
topics asked about
Across 20 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 769 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 611 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 4 | 18 |
| February 2025 | 31 | 58 |
| March 2025 | 36 | 41 |
| April 2025 | 39 | 15 |
| May 2025 | 96 | 43 |
| June 2025 | 40 | 34 |
| July 2025 | 34 | 52 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 23 | 45 |
| October 2025 | 24 | 52 |
| November 2025 | 62 | 20 |
| December 2025 | 19 | 21 |
| January 2026 | 52 | 34 |
| February 2026 | 28 | 34 |
| March 2026 | 39 | 13 |
| April 2026 | 34 | 36 |
| May 2026 | 20 | 22 |
| June 2026 | 133 | 23 |
| July 2026 | 16 | 19 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 29 | 19 |
| October 2026 | 10 | 12 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 370 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 Fingal West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
Three weeks ago, I raised with the Minister of State the case of St. Patrick's Junior National School in Skerries. At the time, I told him that it was going to go from having three classes of 22 to having two classes of 33. I am not trying to put words in his mouth but I think he agreed that 33 students is not ideal. That is as far as he would go; I would say it is an absolute, bloody disgrace. It is not feasible tha…
I raised this with the Minister of State three weeks ago and then, following that, I corresponded with the Minister for education's office. I got correspondence back on 8 October asking for an agenda and a list of attendees at the meeting, which we provided. We have not had any contact since, but we have tried to make contact. I think there were some telephone calls yesterday.
Will consideration be given to the rete…
I ask that the teacher be retained pending the outcome of the appeal. The Minister of State said the appeal would be heard soon. That is a good thing because the school is within the standard retention threshold of 258. As the Minister of State said, the number is 267, and 267 obviously being a higher number than 258 puts it within that threshold.
I have just this minute received a response from the Minister's offic…
Is that today?
Answer the question.
Hear, hear.
Yesterday I was on picket lines across Dublin Fingal West. I met hard-working ordinary people who do their best every single day of the week for the public services they deliver. They are the ones at the business end of Government indifference and incompetence. They are the people who deal with the consequences of short-staffing and overcrowding and they are the ones who are left to plug the gaps and deal with the Fi…
She did not say it. She said "BS", so she used an abbreviation. I am listening; the Minister of State can relax.
I start by thanking my colleague, Deputy Ó Snodaigh, for his absolutely dogged and relentless work in relation to this. There is no better man to take on a project and not give up on it. This is something that we actually cannot give up on. We cannot accept the assertion from the Government - I note that the Minister tried to clarify some of her remarks - that people getting into a taxi might struggle to find the Kat…
In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until next week's division time.
A few days before the budget, the finance Minister was asked about the crippling cost of energy and he said that help was on the way. Why anyone would want to listen to him is a mystery to me, but there you go; some people do. Following that message, people waited because they thought the Government would be as good as its word, that help was on the way. People waited, not to fill their tanks because they do not do t…
I understand that the Ministers and I absolutely have our differences. They believe that the free market has all the answers. I believe in a planned economy. They believe we should keep vulture funds and large-scale investors happy at any cost. I believe in progressive taxation. Fair enough, we are on different sides in most debates, and I would not expect their budget to look like mine, but I was genuinely amazed an…
This concerns the reckless decision of the Government to remove a teacher, the 11th mainstream teaching post, from St. Patrick's Junior National School in Skerries. I will refer to what a parent wrote to me. I have spoken to parents and teachers. They are absolutely frantic. She said the school currently has 267 pupils, which is above the standard retention threshold of 258. This raises an important question. Why is …
The school is due to lose the teacher on 23 October. In his closing remarks the Minister of State might advise us how this is going to work, given that the deadline is looming. He might also advise us whether he believes that 33 children in a classroom is acceptable. I will tell him on my behalf that 33 children in a classroom is very much not acceptable. That is not a good learning environment for children to have. …
Of all the short-sighted, tone-deaf announcements that have been made by this Government, and there are many, this one is right up there. I genuinely did a double take when I read it. I thought that in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, surely not even a government as bad as this one is going to jack up the cost of public transport, yet that is apparently what it is proposing.
The Minister well knows that the pe…
1. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection the action he is taking to improve the quality and consistency of first-instance decisions on social welfare applications, particularly where a significant proportion of decisions are subsequently overturned on appeal; whether his Department has reviewed the reasons for those decisions being overturned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. […
Mine is a fairly straightforward question. I need to understand what the Minister is doing to improve the quality and consistency of first-instance decisions. The reason I ask is partly due to the fact that I am tracking the figures but also due to what I see coming into my constituency office. I ask the Minister to refer, if he could, to the domiciliary care allowance application process.
That is the one that, anec…
The domiciliary care allowance and disability allowance are particular concerns for me. I have spoken previously about the issues. It is rough on the families. They have to write about their children on their worst days and about all the bad things that they do to the family. That is not where people want to be. Considerable work could be done by the Minister's Department in advance of that.
Notwithstanding that, fo…
An overturn rate of 60% points to a problem. I also thank the people in the appeals office. We deal with them on a regular basis and I know they are doing their best. Having said that, there is an issue. I cannot think of any other instance where there would be a 60% overturn rate. That kind of rate is a structural failure. I am not necessarily calling it an "error rate", but the original decisions are not good and t…
3. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection the assessment he has made of the recent findings on child poverty (details supplied); whether he considers that the current system of income supports is sufficiently targeted at families experiencing poverty and deprivation; the changes he believes are necessary to ensure that children in the most disadvantaged households benefit from rising househol…
The ESRI findings on child poverty are a pretty damning indictment of the statements the Minister and the Government make. I think we will find it very hard to disagree with that. I am interested to know whether the Minister accepts the ESRI findings and its statement that "the Government is very far from meeting its target with regard to reducing child poverty". Rhetoric is one thing, and to be fair to the Minister'…
I do not think the measure the Government uses for poverty will in any way interfere with the people who are living with material deprivation. I genuinely think they do not care what metric the Government chooses to measure it by because they are in poverty. The ESRI tells us very clearly that there is a rise. Some 17.4% of children are living below the poverty line. After housing costs, that goes to 22.7%. In fact, …
I do not think the Minister is in any danger of leaving people worse off just because he thinks the measurement might be off. With the greatest of respect, I think that is a bit of a nonsense argument. The Minister can see the trend and what way it is going. I do not want to get into an argument because there are people at home who, God love them, might be watching this wondering what we are talking about. This is ab…
It is not funny. The Tánaiste should not laugh about it.