Since the Business Committee last met the company, Fastway Couriers, has gone into receivership resulting in the loss of 1,000 jobs in almost every constituency in the country. We need urgent statements because, as tragic as every job loss is, there are a number of competing factors here which point to huge gaps in our workers' rights legislation that need urgent debate. When will these workers, many of whom are on u…
TDs / Duncan Smith
Duncan Smith
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
547
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
93,576
words spoken in the chamber
Across 293 contributions
361
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
162
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 547 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 293 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 12 | 2 |
| February 2025 | 40 | 11 |
| March 2025 | 46 | 10 |
| April 2025 | 34 | 16 |
| May 2025 | 27 | 14 |
| June 2025 | 31 | 19 |
| July 2025 | 19 | 13 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 34 | 8 |
| October 2025 | 31 | 23 |
| November 2025 | 24 | 31 |
| December 2025 | 17 | 18 |
| January 2026 | 16 | 16 |
| February 2026 | 34 | 18 |
| March 2026 | 19 | 14 |
| April 2026 | 25 | 9 |
| May 2026 | 41 | 30 |
| June 2026 | 51 | 12 |
| July 2026 | 15 | 11 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 12 | 9 |
| October 2026 | 19 | 9 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 187 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 East 29 November 2024 to now
- party Labour Party 29 November 2024 to now
The Minister will know from his time on Fingal County Council that Donabate-Portrane is one area where the State is delivering houses at scale. Despite the population increase, there is only one direct bus service to Dublin city centre, the 33D at 7.20 a.m., and one back at 5.45 p.m. I have a sheaf of emails from the NTA and Dublin Bus that committed to one extra bus service in the morning and one in the evening, to …
Hear, hear.
I fully support what my colleague, Deputy Kenny, said regarding supporting the Minister on her work in this area. It is very important that work takes place on that side of the House, as well as the Government being held to account. I was present in the Chamber when the Minister made one of the most impactful speeches to the House I have ever seen. We will not allow this to stand in our Parliament or out on the stree…
Our party strongly echoes those concerns, as raised previously.
87. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his engagement with the European Union and other allies in regard to the peace deal in the Middle East; the role Ireland will play in delivering aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57172/25]
It feels odd asking a question about a peace plan and a ceasefire when we see continued attacks perpetrated by Israel on Gaza but we are ostensibly in a peace plan space. I met the Palestinian ambassador last week who was looking forward with hope that we can move towards a real and just peace. There is a long road to go but what is Ireland doing now that we have moved to - hopefully - a phase where we can look forwa…
What pressure are we able to exert on our European allies and on Israel to ensure that UNRWA can get back up and running as best it can? In fairness, we in Ireland tried to continue to fund UNRWA over the last couple of years when others were pulling back and bowing to Israeli pressure. In calmer times, Ireland has been able to assist and help deliver structural aid in Gaza, such as a solar farm, wastewater treatment…
The US Vice President has been in Israel and has been talking about this peace plan albeit 153 tonnes of bombs were dropped by Israel on Gaza yesterday. The US Vice President spoke about a stabilisation force and a peace force. We have a proud tradition in that region of peacekeeping. However, given what we are debating in the coming weeks and months in terms of the triple lock and the future of our peacekeeping - I …
The Bill before us is not complicated. It makes a small, focused change to the way in which the National Training Fund can be spent. We in the Labour Party have long advocated for better use to be made of this fund. For too long we have seen huge surpluses built up with little in the way of ideas, imagination or indeed a mechanism being put forward on how to spend this money. In the years ahead we will all need to ad…
I echo what Deputy Mac Lochlainn said. At all the Business Committee meetings I have been at, we have seldom had such a direct discussion about needing time as last week - it was on the fisheries issue - and the Chief Whip came down strongly, saying the schedule was full, there was loads of legislation and there was no time for anything. Yet we are engineering a parliamentary schedule that has never happened before, …
While I will not be calling a vote on this, I believe that, given the significant developments in Palestine in the past couple of days, it would be of relevance to the House if we had an update on the overall situation in Palestine, particularly in relation to the provision of aid, both emergency and structural, and Ireland's role in that. What does the Tánaiste mean by having an open mind on peacekeeping?
I want to raise the early years sector with the Taoiseach today. Much has been made of the Government's failure to live up to its pre-election promises in this area. I want to focus on a specific area, that is, the community not-for-profit and voluntary sector for early years. In the wider Fingal area there are 291 early years service providers but only 16, or 5%, of them are from the community not-for-profit sector,…
This was not a budget for the ordinary worker, the fleeced generation or the hoodwinked masses whom the Government fooled into voting for it last year. I got an e-mail from a constituent of mine in Malahide yesterday afternoon. It might interest the Minister because this individual is not a voter of mine. She is actually a voter of the Minister's party.
This constituent wrote to me and said she wanted to express her…
We have no issue with the increase in price on tobacco, but it is worth stating on the record in the debate on this financial resolution that 2025 was supposed to the year that the policy target of a tobacco-free Ireland would be met and that tobacco prevalence would be at 5%. It has been a common thread through the last four Governments - this Government and previous governments, with Fine Gael being one of the comm…
It cannot be lost on us what we have done here today, in terms of adapting Leaders' Questions to deal with this issue. I commend the Government Chief Whip on allowing this today. I cannot remember a precedent for this, given all the crises we have had before. It was right to do it but it shows that this House can act, adapt and be flexible.
I have to bring the Tánaiste back to the occupied territories Bill. In my ti…
In light of that, would the Tánaiste be confident it will be before the end of November?
Okay. We will have it before the end of November.
At least that is something.
Is there any update on the potential suite of measures the Taoiseach announced at the UN General Assembly, to include sanctions on the travel of Israeli Ministers? Has anything new been put in place? If not, when will they be put in place and what exactly is the full extent of such new sanctioning measures?
I do not want to go over the answer with regard to vessels, observational vessels and individuals, in terms of going as far and being turned back, but we have the flotilla continuing. This could happen again and again. Is the Tánaiste open to engaging with like-minded EU states to come up with contingency plans for the protection, observation - whatever you want to call it - or engagement for humanitarian aid flotill…
I was in the defence committee this morning discussing the maritime security strategy. Within that came our capabilities, and we know the issues in relation to naval vessels. We do have legacy expertise in the Mediterranean neighbourhood through Operation Pontus and working with EU partner states on that. We can act and we do have expertise in our Defence Forces and Naval Service to do that.
On the piracy and the ki…
Would it be fair to say that the Tánaiste and Government have an appetite?
In the spirit of the worker's voice on this, we have seen the action in Italy with workers' solidarity, which has been called for for a couple of weeks. The Labour Party has the Occupying Power (Securities and Handling of Settlement Goods) Bill 2025. Would the Tánaiste support, at least in principle, the idea that workers in this country who refuse to handle, store or provide carriage of settlement goods - I have kep…
Finally, on the transport of weapons through Irish airspace, we know, as Deputy Murphy said in his contribution earlier, that these end up going into the Department of Transport investigations black hole. Will the Tánaiste please commit to this House, and this is small, that he will ask the Department of Transport to expedite these investigations, to publish results, and to change and improve how it conducts these in…
The greatest ally genocide has is those who choose not to call it out when they see it. Over the weekend, I saw a commentary about whether there is the need for these statements on Gaza and, indeed, yesterday's statements on the flotilla. Some people in this country were questioning whether we should have these statements at all, considering the issues our own country faces. To those people I say: remember our own hi…