I am very grateful to the Deputy for raising the very large Sudanese population that lives here in Ireland. When we see things in the abstract and we look at news reports and everything else, we forget that these are people's family members and friends. These are people living in our constituencies who are worried about their family and friends and not knowing what the future holds.
In regard to Ireland's role, ther…
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.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 265 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 8 |
| March 2025 | 46 |
| April 2025 | 4 |
| May 2025 | 4 |
| June 2025 | 8 |
| July 2025 | 9 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 1 |
| October 2025 | 13 |
| November 2025 | 33 |
| December 2025 | 2 |
| January 2026 | 14 |
| February 2026 | 35 |
| March 2026 | 4 |
| April 2026 | 24 |
| May 2026 | 9 |
| June 2026 | 11 |
| July 2026 | 28 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 11 |
| October 2026 | 1 |
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 will try my best with ten minutes but I might ask for a little bit of latitude from the House, given that we are ahead of schedule. A number of pertinent issues were raised by Deputies and by the Acting Chair that I will try to address. I want to address a couple of points raised by Deputies who are still in the Chamber as I think they merit the response. A lot of what Deputy Boyd Barrett raised stuck with me. I wa…
It is clear the strength of opinion held across the House on the situation in Gaza and, indeed, in the West Bank and on the importance attached to this draft legislation. The programme for Government commitments to prohibiting the imports of goods from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. The general scheme before the House delivers on this commitment. Trade and services are considerably more co…
I join both the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, in commending the people of Ukraine on their brave defence of their homeland and, equally, to utterly condemn Russia for its brutal and illegal war. Let there be no equivocation: there is one single aggressor and one sole reason for this brutal conflict, which is the madness of the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin that is driving this war. It is a war …
It is from the 1950s.
It came in during the 1950s.
It came from legislation from 1954.
All right.
I can hear you.
I thank the Deputies from all sides of the House and Ministers for their contributions today. I will reply to some of the points in order to provide clarification but from the get-go, I welcome the overwhelming, if not total sense of solidarity between this House and the people of Ukraine, particularly from opposition Members who recognise this is an utterly illegal and brutal war by the Russian Federation under the …
I am just providing a clarification; I am not looking to get into a debate on it. We send members of the Defence Forces to train in de-mining activities. That is not training people for war; it is removing land mines from potentially targeting civilians. I am not taking issue with the other points the Deputy raised, but that specific one is particularly important.
Respectfully, we are not taking sides as a military neutral.
Respectfully, I answered the Deputy on one technical point, which is clear. Training people to remove land mines is not taking sides in a war. The national position is that we are not politically neutral; we are militarily neutral. If the Deputy thinks it is taking sides to remove land mines from blowing up women and children, that it is a different interpretation of what we are doing.
Deputy Lawless made the point …
I only have ten minutes and referred to Deputy Healy-Rae's point five minutes ago. I am referring to Deputy Heneghan's questions. That is why we have a memorandum of understanding on defence with the United Kingdom and why we co-operate in sharing information with the tech companies and the private sector. It is to provide those cables. I acknowledge, first and foremost, that we need to do more.
Ah Jesus, Deputy Healy-Rae.
What I mean when I say we need to do more is that we need to resource our Defences Forces more and continue investing in new equipment. Respectfully, I answered one technical query Deputy Healy-Rae asked. I moved on five minutes ago. I am talking about a situation that impacts his constituents as much as it impacts mine. He was given his time; I am given my time to respond for the Government. Respectfully, I will con…
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. At the House's discretion, I think the Deputy would like to join me in a note of sympathy on the death of his former colleague in Kerry County Council and former mayor of Tralee, Jim Finucane, who was a good friend of mine and I know of the Deputy as well. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Housing, …
The updated rural housing guidelines in the form of a national planning statement will set out relevant planning criteria to be applied in the local authority development plans for rural housing on a consistent basis based on the high-level policy framework set out by the national planning framework and recognising that obligations under European directives and international agreements relating to the management and …
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister. The Deputy will appreciate that the supply of public water and the provision of water services in general are matters for Uisce Éireann in the first instance. Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level. The Minister has no func…
Both our water and wastewater systems require substantial and sustained investment over a number of investment cycles to bring the systems up to the quality and resilience standards required of a modern service to provide for population growth and to build resilience in the face of climate change. The preferred long-term approach for Clonmel, as set out in Uisce Éireann's national water resource plan, is the construc…
I am very grateful to Deputy Murphy for raising this issue. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, would also like to thank him for raising this matter and he looks forward to continuing a very close working relationship, given the Deputy's role as Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport.
The Department of Transport is committed, under action 7B of the road safety strategy phase 2 action plan, to address…
I am very grateful to Deputy Murphy for raising this. From a road safety perspective, it is vital that learners are encouraged to complete the learning-to-drive process and become fully qualified drivers, and that people do not hold learner permits without ever taking a driving test. The RSA has a communication plan to engage with multiple learner permit holders. This will provide clear, targeted information to affec…
I thank the Opposition for tabling this motion. Commitment to the reunification of the country is a founding principle of the Government. The Government holds an aspiration for a united Ireland in common with the Opposition and, in the spirit of this debate, I underline the fact that we are not opposing this motion.
Every Irish Government must be guided by Article 3 of the Constitution, which states:
It is the firm…
It happens. I get called that regularly in south Dublin, where Deputy McDonald and I grew up-----
-----but in east Belfast we were called much else. We were Lundys. We were Free Staters. We were Fenian scum. That was the language too many of us know in this House. I fear it is creeping back in. We need to take the responsibility, all of us who believe in a truly united Ireland, to call it out from all angles.
It is important to acknowledge that we support the Good Friday Agreement in full. When we speak about th…