The Minister is going to go down in history for having introduced a new principle of economics. It is called shrinkflation. It is the idea you can reduce the price of something by reducing the size of something. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. The price of milk has gone up almost 14% in the last year. Imagine a milk producer said people should not worry because producers are going to cut the price of…
TDs / Eoin Ó Broin
Eoin Ó Broin
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,180
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
109,926
words spoken in the chamber
Across 576 contributions
394
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
204
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.
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Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Questions asked 1,180 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 576 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
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| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 42 | 1 |
| February 2025 | 40 | 50 |
| March 2025 | 74 | 32 |
| April 2025 | 69 | 12 |
| May 2025 | 58 | 31 |
| June 2025 | 59 | 52 |
| July 2025 | 88 | 23 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 46 | 9 |
| October 2025 | 57 | 23 |
| November 2025 | 63 | 48 |
| December 2025 | 42 | 19 |
| January 2026 | 71 | 27 |
| February 2026 | 71 | 23 |
| March 2026 | 76 | 30 |
| April 2026 | 64 | 20 |
| May 2026 | 70 | 66 |
| June 2026 | 81 | 28 |
| July 2026 | 41 | 37 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 29 | 1 |
| October 2026 | 39 | 43 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 368 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 Mid-West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
I move amendment No. 1 to Seanad amendment No. 24:
After subsection (1), to insert the following:
"(1A) The holder of a permission shall notify the public of the application by way of a site notice.
(1B) In order to ensure adherence with the State’s obligations under the Aarhus Convention and the principles of good planning and development the relevant authority shall provide for public participation in the certif…
Can I briefly comment?
I apologise to the Minister. I meant to say this on section 2. At some point during the Minister's responses to any of the clusters of amendments or the sections, it would be only right if he was able to give us any additional detail he has about the amendments he is intending to submit in the Seanad, that is, both the additional transitional amendments as well as the so-called permitted alterations. The first reason…
I move amendment No. 5:
In page 11, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:
“(e) The Minister may, by way of regulations, provide for third party observations for consideration by the planning authority to ensure compliance with the State’s obligations under the Aarhus Convention and the principles of good planning and development.”.
I want to make a couple of general points on the planned legislation an…
That is precisely the problem. If this change to planning legislation had been included in the Planning and Development Act which we spent two years passing through the House, as a committee we could have asked, for example, planning law experts, professional planners and legal experts who specialise in Aarhus Convention compliance their views on this. One of the points I made on Second Stage was that it is hard to u…
I move amendment No. 6:
In page 11, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:
“(e) The Minister may, in consultation with the Minister for Justice and with the approval of Cabinet, introduce regulations to place High Court good practice guidelines on a statutory footing in order to have legally binding statutory timelines for the hearing of Judicial Reviews and for the issuing of Court decisions on Judicial…
I accept the technical explanation but would just make one point. I ask the Minister to examine the principle behind this amendment and to discuss it with the Minister for justice and also, in the course of his work as Minister for housing, with the relevant members of the Judiciary. We need to fix this bit of the system too. There is little value in having statutory timelines for decisions of the board, for example,…
I will speak to my two amendments in this grouping. I said at the outset that we are not opposed in principle to a time-limited extension of duration. The challenge, however, is that there is no point giving somebody an extension of duration if they cannot demonstrate that something has changed and that what was previously unviable is now viable. I therefore think there needs to be some mechanism by which, when a pub…
I move amendment No. 11:
In page 12, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following:
“(b) an explanation as to why the development has not yet commenced, a viability assessment setting out what has changed that would allow the development to commence if an extension of duration is granted, and a detailed schedule of works setting out when the various stages of development will occur,”.
I move amendment No. 14:
"In page 13, line 25, to delete “18 months” and substitute “6 months”."
I move amendment No. 15:
In page 13, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following:
“(h) The Minister may, by way of regulations, provide for third party observations to the planning authority on any request for an extension of duration under this section. The regulations may include provision for:
(i) the publication of public notices, on site, in newspapers and on digital platforms, of any request for an exte…
I move amendment No. 16:
In page 14, after line 18, to insert the following:
“Report on planning permissions and residential units
18. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report detailing the number of planning permissions and residential units to which section 14 of this Act may apply and making recommendations on how to ensure that extensio…
There is no enforcement of commencements. I understand the Minister's officials in the Department are liaising with local authorities with respect to determining whether developments that are availing of the development levy waiver and the water utility connection waiver are having a look at this. Local authorities do planning enforcement, but many do not even have the staff to do building control enforcement. There …
I move amendment No. 17:
In page 14, after line 18, to insert the following:
“Report on extensions
18. Every six months after the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the operation of the extension of duration detailing the number of developments that have availed of the extensions, the number of units granted extension that have commenced and the number of un…
I move amendment No. 18:
In page 14, after line 18, to insert the following:
"Report on impact of Judicial Reviews
18. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the impact of Judicial Reviews on development including, critical infrastructure, renewable energy, public transport and residential development and setting out options for increa…
I move amendment No. 19:
In page 14, after line 18, to insert the following:
"Report on compliance
18. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the compliance of all sections of this Act with the State’s obligations under the Aarhus Convention and the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive.".
Be careful what you wish for.
I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I am sharing time with Deputy Gould.
When Deputy Darragh O'Brien was the Minister for housing and he launched a once-in-a-generation review on consolidation of the planning and development Acts, one of his main arguments was that the 2000 Act had been amended so many times that the legislation was unwieldy, too difficult to understand and overly complex and, therefore, what we need…
2. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the review of section 10 funding for homelessness service providers; and the changes he intends to make to this funding stream, in light of the near financial collapse of an organisation (details supplied) in 2023. [36134/25]
6. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the growing unaffordability of cost-rental schemes funded by his Department; the measures he intends to take to address this growing unaffordability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36136/25]
11. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a date for when his revised housing plan will be completed and published. [35826/25]
I read the Department's amendment this morning. There is nothing constructive about it. It is an absolute embarrassment because of what it says not just to Deputies in this Chamber but to the people experiencing the hard edge of the Government's failed housing policies, which is that nothing will change. It is more of the same failed policies into the future. Yesterday, the housing committee had a session on homeless…
What an utter shambles. In my entire time in Dáil Éireann, I have never witnessed a more haphazard, ramshackle, back-of-the-envelope process for putting in place widespread reforms that are going to impact tens of thousands of people. While I understand Ministers and Ministers of State have to come here and defend this farce, privately they must be absolutely reeling. The credibility of the Government's housing polic…
In the best-case scenario, all this will do is create a modest increase in the levels of institutional investment in high-end, high-cost, private rental cost developments in the Google quarter, Sandyford and other high-income areas. Everyone else will be left behind. The industry reaction to this has ranged from the lukewarm to the hostile because the Government could not even get that bit right. The consequence is t…