Cork City Council has a target to deliver 592 new build social homes in 2025. The social housing construction status report, CSR, shows that there were 1,084 homes on site at various stages of design and procurement in Cork city at the end of Q1 of 2025. Cork county has a target of 683 new-build social homes this year. The CSR shows that there are 1,203 homes on site at various stages of design and procurement in Cor…
TDs / Christopher O'Sullivan
Christopher O'Sullivan
Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
40
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
101,536
words spoken in the chamber
99,157 as a minister, 2,379 as a TD
406
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
35
topics asked about
Across 12 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 40 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 222 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 4 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 1 | 13 |
| March 2025 | 3 | 28 |
| April 2025 | 0 | 16 |
| May 2025 | 2 | 11 |
| June 2025 | 0 | 12 |
| July 2025 | 3 | 24 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 | 3 |
| October 2025 | 2 | 16 |
| November 2025 | 6 | 15 |
| December 2025 | 0 | 17 |
| January 2026 | 4 | 1 |
| February 2026 | 2 | 14 |
| March 2026 | 0 | 7 |
| April 2026 | 3 | 3 |
| May 2026 | 2 | 17 |
| June 2026 | 2 | 7 |
| July 2026 | 3 | 8 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 3 | 5 |
| October 2026 | 0 | 5 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 110 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 Cork South-West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage 29 January 2025 to now
If all local authorities were able to match the rate of delivery of Cork county then the rate of delivery of social housing and affordable housing right across the board would be much stronger. I commend the work of the councillors and the local authority there, of which the Deputy was recently a member.
There are some specifics in relation to Cork North-West, if the Deputy is interested. The Deputy mentioned Macroo…
Fair play to Deputy O'Shea for taking this opportunity to raise the issue. We cannot rest on our laurels. There is a lot more work to be done. There are still plenty of people in Cork county who need social homes. There is a huge demand for affordable homes so we absolutely need to accelerate that delivery. The Deputy is right in saying that when Cork County Council got the go ahead to deliver affordable homes, it wa…
I get to speak today on investment in our nature and built heritage. The exciting news is that, for the first time ever, funding for nature and heritage exceeds a quarter of a billion. That is extraordinary and something we could not have thought possible a number of years ago. Now, for the first time, we exceed that figure. To put it into context, that represents a 15% increase for nature and heritage in general and…
They must have been over for the Steelers game.
To answer Deputy Toole's question at the outset, the chief pharmaceutical officer commitment will be fulfilled. I do not have a timeline on that but it is absolutely a commitment that we will follow through and fulfil.
I would like to thank the Deputies for their contributions today, especially those who spoke in support of community pharmacists and the work they do i…
I thank the Deputy for speaking on this issue with such passion. He has a lot of knowledge in this area. He has seen the benefits that DEIS has provided with those extra supports in terms of schools where there are a variety of challenges. There are disadvantages areas and students from all different backgrounds. I have also seen first-hand in my own constituency the benefits those extra DEIS supports can bring. This…
I reiterate that the Government is committed to tackling child poverty and it sees education as a key enabler to achieve that. The development of the DEIS plus scheme will be a further positive step in this commitment to lifting more children out of poverty to give them the futures they deserve. Since its introduction the DEIS programme has tackled the impact of poverty through supporting the improved attendance and …
I thank the Deputy for addressing this. She has certainly outlined a hardship case. It is hard to disagree with her description of it as a gap in the system that needs to be addressed. I will just outline the current situation and then perhaps from there we can bring this back to the Minister for Social Protection to ensure he is aware of anomalies.
I will first provide an overview of the supports available to widow…
As I referred to in my opening statement, the social system operates on the general principle of one person, one payment. This approach is a standard feature of social security systems throughout the world. It means that, generally, the bereaved partner's pension cannot be received at the same time as illness benefit. I know it is probably no comfort, but my earlier contribution also referred to the option of the sup…
I thank Deputy Wall for raising this issue. I have taken a couple of Topical Issue matters from him and Athy seems to feature fairly prominently. Fair play. He is representing the place well. It is interesting that he is providing a bit of a taxi service for anybody who misses a train. That is the right thing to do. Fair play to him.
Funding and policymaking for public transport is down to the Minister of State, Dep…
That is a point well made. Athy is obviously a growing town. It is an important commuter town, not just for people to work and commute but also for people to study and commute, so it is important that we facilitate that, take cars off the road and provide as much public transport as possible. The investment in the extra carriages, as outlined, on the Drogheda line will free up carriages. Deputy Wall has made the case…
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I know the LauraLynn foundation is something he has always advocated for and fought for. I agree with him 100%. The merit and support provided by organisations and foundations like the LauraLynn children's hospice represent unbelievable value for money. The service they provide is incredible. I liken it to Cancer Connect or ARC house, which are organisations we should really…
We will get clarity on whether it will be a review or a brand-new policy. The Deputy mentioned some good examples. He has been an advocate for all of the organisations he mentioned. We know he has been championing the highlighting of rare diseases, especially among children, over this term and the previous term. I refer again to Cancer Connect. A number of years ago it received no funding from the State, and now it d…
The Government will oppose this Bill, but I welcome the opportunity to speak about the role of Government measures to support access to affordable housing and assist those aspiring to buy their own home. We continue to deliver the first affordable homes in a generation and are supporting increasing supply in this area. Quarter 1 of 2025 has seen the continued strong performance of the various affordable housing pathw…
I also welcome Deputy Hearne's family to the Public Gallery, although I am not sure if they are still up there. I had a sense that he was a lot more measured in his approach today. He was a lot more tempered. Usually, he does not hold back and gives it both barrels. He is clearly on his best behaviour, although I had better not speak too soon. I appreciate that this is his first time introducing legislation in the Ho…
I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for raising this issue. I imagine that he experienced frustration during the summer and has probably waiting for an opportunity to highlight this matter in the Dáil. Perhaps he could provide some feedback on whether this malodour was at a heightened level during the summer months. We had a pretty dry June and July, with high temperatures and low rainfall. There probably was not much flow in…
The Minister, Deputy Browne, apologised that he could not make it here to deal with this question personally, but we work collaboratively within the Department anyway. I will absolutely undertake to try to get more detail and a timeline. Regarding the cause of the issue, septicity is the cause of the odour. The untreated sewage at this point remains stagnant en route to the treatment plant, so it is not necessarily a…
Before we move on to Leaders' Questions, it has to be noted that I sat next to the Minister, Deputy Burke, during the debate. He offered full respect to each and every one of the Opposition speakers without interrupting once, yet in the single ten-minute slot in which he had to speak, he was interrupted and heckled. That is absolutely ridiculous. This is an ongoing trend and it has to be stopped because it is complet…
In addition to the provisions the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, has outlined, the Bill also provides for amendments to the Act 2024 to clarify transitional arrangements as the planning system moves from operating under the 2000 Act to the new Act. The following approval of the revised national planning framework 2025, which will facilitate the delivery of in excess of 50,000 additional new homes per annum, there…
I am happy to join with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, to speak to this from a housing perspective because, obviously, that is another cost that is incurred by students. I want to outline what we will do in that regard.
I thank all contributors to this evening's debate. The Government is very much aware of the costs that students and families may encounter when attending tert…
I move:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes:
— the ongoing commitment of this Government to honouring the men and women of 1916;
— the hugely successful and inclusive Decade of Centenaries programme, and the Government's investment in key capital projects in that regard, including the seminal 1916 Museum and Exhibition at the General Post Office (GPO), and the purchase by…
There are people whose family members participated through different periods of this revolutionary period. Sinn Féin does not own this narrative. We all have an invested role here. To hear things such as "betrayal" and to hear the Government being accused of the "wanton destruction" of this revolutionary period is completely outrageous and untoward. There was no mention of the investment in Kilmainham Gaol and the in…
There was no mention of-----
-----the €10 million spent on the exhibition that we already have in the GPO. There was no mention of the decade of centenaries. None of that was mentioned. It was completely wiped out for Sinn Féin's narrative. The Government is invested in this. With anything that happens to the GPO, there will be an absolute focus on the cultural importance of the GPO.
There will be a focus on the historic importance of the GPO. There will be a focus on the role this period played in this important part of Ireland's history. The reason the State bought and owns 14-17 Moore Street is to protect it and to commemorate what happened in those houses on Moore Street. To hear descriptions such as "betrayal" and "wanton destruction" is-----