It is a great pleasure to address the House on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, who will join us momentarily.
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment asked me to begin by addressing the serious concerns that all of us have in relation to the abuse of Al capabilities, more specifically regarding Grok’s ability to "nudify" individuals without their consent. To be absolutely clear, the sharin…
TDs / Neale Richmond
Neale Richmond
Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
100,288
words spoken in the chamber
97,626 as a minister, 2,662 as a TD
278
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
The record holds no parliamentary questions from them in this Dáil.
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Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 265 in all
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Debates they spoke in most
Plus 161 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Dublin Rathdown 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs 29 January 2025 to 25 March 2025
- office Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 26 March 2025 to now
I am grateful to Deputy O'Reilly for raising this important issue. While I am taking it on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, it is one I have a personal interest in. We spent many a day on this topic in the previous Dáil. As the Deputy will know, the programme for government sets out a strong enterprise and fiscal framework prioritising economic and employment growth, with a target of cr…
That is after five years of low numbers.
Where we are in agreement is that the trend is the concern. Youth unemployment being ahead of general unemployment is something we can accept happens but the rate at the moment is a worry. I share that with the Deputy and it is important we clarify that. That is why the Government continues to monitor labour market conditions and the youth unemployment rate and several of our recent initiatives will be central to sup…
I thank both Deputies for raising this important Topical Issue. I welcome the opportunity to outline the position on this important matter on behalf of the Minister.
This Government takes the safety of vulnerable individuals in our society extremely seriously and recognises the effect of Storm Éowyn and the impact it had on power, water and telecommunications services for those individuals. The Department of Rural a…
The review of Storm Éowyn, published in October of last year, by the Department of housing recognised the particular challenges of providing humanitarian support to vulnerable people during emergencies, acknowledging the complex and multisectoral nature of developing effective response measures and the complexities of defining, reporting and sharing information in relation to vulnerable people.
However, it did more …
I am very grateful to Deputy Ellis for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection.
The objective of the school meals programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. In the last…
I thank the Deputy once again for raising this matter and for allowing an opportunity to discuss the school meals programme and, in particular, the breakfast and snack clubs. I assure him that the Ministers for Education and Youth and Social Protection are both very much aware of the importance of children being able to receive a breakfast meal before they start their school day. The breakfast or snack club is a targ…
The Deputy is speaking from the Opposition. He knows how this works.
The Deputy can make his remarks but he does not have to-----
The Deputy knows-----
I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes the vote of the European Union (EU) member states on 9th January, which accepted by a qualified majority the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement; and
recognises that:
— every effort was undertaken by the Government to work with like-minded EU member states who shared concerns with the Mercosur agreement to stand up for I…
We have plenty of TDs.
I am grateful for the opportunity to close this debate. I thank Deputies for their contributions and consideration of the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill. I look forward to the opportunity to respond in this period to some of the issues raised. Crucially, I remind Deputies of the ultimate reason the Government is introducing this legislation, that is, to put Ireland, as a country that so greatly benefits from internatio…
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Deputies Duncan Smith and Heneghan have asked similar questions and we will have a longer debate on it this afternoon.
The conflict in Sudan has resulted in the world’s most severe humanitarian and protection crisis, with more than 150,000 deaths, over 2 million forcibly displaced and more than 21 million people facing crisis levels of hunger. Following the appalling recen…
On discussions, as I mentioned, the Government has raised this at EU and UN levels, where appropriate. I have also personally discussed it at a political level with senior officials and ministers from the UAE. That happened at a meeting in Dublin a number of months ago, meetings held in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and at High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, and I will be meeting the UAE ambassador in a few hours.
We …
Let there be no underestimation. This is the worst humanitarian crisis happening in the world at the moment and it has been for a considerable time. It is the largest displacement of people, and Ireland will not be found wanting.
As I mentioned, so far this year, we have allocated €4.3 million in humanitarian assistance. That included an additional €3 million announced by me and the Tánaiste in September at the UN a…
I thank the Deputy for his timely question. Ireland's diplomatic priorities are set out in the Department of Foreign Affair and Trade's statement of strategy for 2025 to 2028, which includes active diplomatic engagement in promoting peace, security and the protection of human rights abroad. We pursue these objectives against the backdrop of a changing geopolitical landscape and a wide range of challenges that require…
There are a couple of elements to that. The negotiations under way in Geneva between the US and Ukraine are welcome, but Ireland is not a direct party to them. One issue that came up at the Foreign Affairs Council, which I attended virtually yesterday, was the need for there to be an EU track to the negotiations. While there are three European countries around the negotiations, we want to make sure there is a real EU…
Yes, absolutely. When there is a ceasefire and a peace agreement in Ukraine, Ireland is fully prepared to play a real part in that. Just two weeks ago, I was in Colombia, one of 13 Irish Aid countries, and our programme work there is solely in relation to peace. The experience of Ireland has been put into action to uphold the 2016 peace agreement. I visited projects with decommissioned FARC guerillas who were being s…
I am very grateful to the iar-Cheann Comhairle for raising this important issue. Afghanistan was not discussed at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council which the Minister, Deputy McEntee, attended on 20 November. However, the Minister and I believe that the current dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan clearly warrants a political level discussion within the Foreign Affairs Council, given t…
I fundamentally agree with the Deputy. Although I do not know if the words "moderate" and "Taliban" can ever be used in the same sentence, I understand the point he is trying to make. I absolutely agree that the attention needs to be continued. That is one of the main reasons that there is a specific reference in the programme for Government to protecting women and girls in Afghanistan. We believe we have a responsib…
One of the things that was often lost in the public mindset around this discussion is that level of compassion - perhaps eclipsed understandably by the sheer scale of compassion needed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that led to over 110,000 people coming to this country. However, before that, after the fall of Kabul and the return of the Taliban, that level of community-level, driven compassion was there. I kn…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13, 35 and 97 together.
I thank Deputy Smith, as I did Deputy Ó Laoghaire, for raising this matter consistently. It is going to be a very important debate this afternoon. The Government remains deeply concerned by the devastating conflict in Sudan, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian and protection crisis. More than 150,000 people have already been killed, some 12 million…
The history of war in Sudan is awful and bloody. It is also complex with regard to the parties to the war. We can talk about the RSF and the Government but we can also talk about various tribal militias who are agnostic with regard to who they side with in pursuit of their bloody aims.
This conflict is of a scale that is perhaps unfathomable to this House, to be honest. It is as bad as anything the continent has see…