Half a per cent goes to rare diseases.
TDs / Pádraig O'Sullivan
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,460
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
54,825
words spoken in the chamber
Across 217 contributions. Plus 80 contributions from the chair, not counted
415
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
267
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 1,460 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 217 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 18 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 62 | 15 |
| March 2025 | 62 | 10 |
| April 2025 | 43 | 10 |
| May 2025 | 47 | 13 |
| June 2025 | 41 | 14 |
| July 2025 | 45 | 21 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 42 | 10 |
| October 2025 | 58 | 9 |
| November 2025 | 87 | 21 |
| December 2025 | 63 | 3 |
| January 2026 | 53 | 14 |
| February 2026 | 37 | 5 |
| March 2026 | 45 | 7 |
| April 2026 | 40 | 14 |
| May 2026 | 195 | 14 |
| June 2026 | 255 | 20 |
| July 2026 | 152 | 6 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 41 | 5 |
| October 2026 | 74 | 6 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 189 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 Cork North-Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
I want to begin by welcoming these statements. They are long overdue. I commend the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and all the Ministers involved in the negotiations over the last weeks. The figures speak for themselves. In four weeks, diesel prices at the pump rose by approximately 25%. For a sector where fuel already accounts for nearly half of all operating costs, that was not an inconvenience, but an existenti…
Going forward, we need to look at the tolling system if we are on about protecting supply chains. I am from Little Island in Cork, which is a large industrial area. We have dozens of haulage companies around the harbour area, coming in and out of Ringaskiddy and the city. Cork is a city that is very heavily reliant on the haulage business. We need to have a look at tolling. In certain countries, there are exemptions …
I know this is a topic the Minister of State is very familiar with, as she has heard me raise it many times within our parliamentary party meetings. This is something she has heard plenty of times from me in the past few years. It is something I am very passionate about. I have more or less dedicated six years of my job as a public representative to pursuing various drugs for rare diseases.
I have a feeling I know w…
The NCPE is waiting for a response from the drugs company at the moment but I hope that, in the coming months, we will be in a position where the 200 patients affected will get access to the drug.
I thank the Minister of State for the response. It is predictable, although I do not say that to be dismissive. I know a lot of this and have known it for some time. The point I made in my initial salvo was that we rank 23rd out of 27 EU countries with regard to reimbursement for rare disease drugs. That is a fact. Whether it is Skyclarys or some other drug for some other ailment, the fact of the matter is that Irela…
I have the response from the Minister of State.
I thank the Minister of State for attending. I know this does not involve his own area, so I appreciate him taking this Topical Issue. As the Acting Chair said, I want to speak about childcare. It is probably one of the top three most prevalent issues in my own area of the city in Glanmire. If the Minister of State is not sure where Glanmire is or does not know much about it, it is a strong, growing suburb.
You have, to be fair. It was after the flooding. The Minister of State is familiar with it. In the last 15 or 20 years, there has been unprecedented development of residential housing there. In the current city development plan proposals, further residential zoning is earmarked. Recently, the Minister, Deputy Foley, announced €135 million for State-led early learning and childcare services. It is a very welcome schem…
It was remiss of me to forget that the Minister of State was in Glanmire when people were in the depths of despair after that flooding incident. I know they were most grateful at that time. They were also grateful to the Taoiseach and the then Minister, Michael McGrath, who was also there at the time. It was remiss of me to forget that, but I know the community in Glanmire certainly will not.
In the brief time that …
28. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation for an update in relation to the Blackpool flood relief scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27251/26]
It will not surprise the Tánaiste and Minister for Health that at another session of Questions on Policy or Legislation, I have another question about rare diseases. Like Deputy McCarthy, I am going to keep raising this until I see some action. The programme for Government commits to an early access scheme. It also commits to a review of the reimbursement process, which numerous Deputies have raised here over the pas…
13. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on justice, migration and social affairs will next meet. [14272/26]
I raise an issue relating to rare diseases. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I recently attended a meeting with sufferers of Friedreich's ataxia. The Tánaiste will be aware of the quest by people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to have givinostat approved. I do not expect him to comment on that because it is subject to negotiation at the moment but the same thing is happening with a different cohort of patients. Some h…
Yesterday on Taoiseach's Questions, I raised the significant problem of residential care provision for families in Cork. The Taoiseach knows the difficulties facing families and he has met a number of them. I know his office is inundated with requests for help. Unfortunately, particularly in Cork, it seems we are running from crisis to crisis. It seems that respite or residential care is only available for people in …
4. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the first meeting of the delivery and monitoring committee for the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, which he chaired on 8 December 2025. [71664/25]
I too want to raise an issue around residential care, following on from Deputy Daly. The Taoiseach and I share a county and city. To be fair, his office was very helpful in the case I worked on with it over the past two weeks where a person required urgent residential intervention. The problem in a Cork context was that this young adult was diagnosed with a mild disability. To call a spade a spade, there are no resid…
23. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on implementation of the well-being framework published by his Department. [71665/25]
I want to raise the section under quality of water or water bodies. The report outlines that the water body assessment showed that 55.3% of Ireland's rivers were assessed as high or good in comparison to 56.2% a number of years prior. The reason I am raising it is that it is specific to one case in Carrignavar, which is in my constituency. Over the past few months, we have been able to tell people that record funding…
I have a good chance compared with some in the room. I believe we need to get real here. We spoke about developer-led infrastructure in particular with regard to improving our housing delivery. That seems to be taking a backseat now.
7. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [69862/25]
There has been a lot of commentary tonight to which I have been listening. I welcome everybody in the Gallery. Some of the commentary I agree with while some of it I fundamentally disagree with and, in my three minutes, I will try to explain as much as I can.
As a teacher, I taught for 15 years in a school. I would have had interaction with our autism spectrum disorder, ASD, hub, which we had in Fermoy where I taugh…
I have been listening to the debate in the Chamber and upstairs for the past 90 minutes or so and can see that a lot of people are speaking from their own personal experience. I live near the River Glashaboy, in Glanmire, and living in the Cork city area with the River Lee, it is inevitable that our day-to-day lives are affected and shaped by the water around us. I have had to go into people's houses and kitchens, li…
I welcome the pause, but, obviously, a pause is not a permanent solution. It is not a binding decision and everybody in this House is going to be watching with interest what happens over the next few weeks.
We in Fianna Fáil have always prided ourselves on being the party of education. The number of SNAs in the country has increased by 45% since I became a TD. That is a good story but in the past week we have someho…
I will leave the Minister of State with three points because I know he will be engaging with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and his senior Minister in the next few days. First, the cliff edge that I have spoken to him about regularly cannot be the reality.
The review I spoke to him about which happened every year needs to be consistent so we do not face this cliff edge in the future. At this point, the loss of any SNA …