The work of the HRB is hugely important. It does not just provide an accurate, State-wide account of the number of people who prematurely die while experiencing homelessness, it also produces comprehensive reports. One of the challenges is the data; because the HRB has to rely on coroners' reports it is four or five years out of date. In the intervening period since the HRB's last report, we have had no new Housing F…
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.
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 1,180 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 576 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| 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
The Minister's colleague in the Department of housing must be pretty embarrassed. Two weeks ago, he leaked to the newspapers that he was looking at a €20,000 increase in the so-called help to buy scheme, a move that would have dramatically inflated house prices just at the moment when price inflation relating to new homes could be potentially beginning to cool. In fact, the Minister's party leader, namely the Tánaist…
93. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out his plans to address the worsening homelessness crisis. [69619/26]
As the Minister will know, last Friday, his Department published the August homelessness report, which saw a very significant increase in the number of adults and children in emergency accommodation funded by the Department. Some 17,885 people, including 5,830 children, are in bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels or family hubs. Will the Minister outline to the House what he is going to do differently in the weeks…
It seems to be that the Minister lives in a parallel universe. In the 22 months he has been Minister, homelessness has increased by a staggering 17%, child homelessness is up by 27% and family homelessness is up 29%. The number of people over the age of 65 in emergency accommodation is up 14%. That has not happened by accident. It has happened because of the Government's policies. The targets for social housing are t…
There is nothing in what the Minister has said that suggests he will get ahead of it. In fact, what he is telling us and all of those people out there at risk of homelessness is that the numbers will rise. HAP numbers have reduced but council waiting lists have increased. The Government delivered more new-build social homes last year than the 1970s but since then, the population of the country has doubled and we have…
Absolutely not. That is just not true.
We would have funded 2,000 of those this year.
The Minister halved the funding to 750. The Minister is misleading the House.
It does not. I am correcting the record so people have factual information.
95. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to state when he will publish the legislation for the Celtic tiger era building defects redress scheme. [69620/26]
It is almost three years since Cabinet, in December 2023, gave approval to the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to draft legislation to underpin a redress scheme for homeowners and tenants living in Celtic tiger era defective homes. That Minister missed the timelines for the publication and passing of the legislation. Deputy Browne indicated to us earlier this year that he hoped to have the legislation…
Tonight, tens of thousands of families will be forced to sleep in defective, and in many cases unsafe, homes. All they want to know is when the legislation will be published and when the scheme will be open for applications. On the basis of the answer the Minister provided to us, given that there are only ten sitting weeks left in this Dáil term, it is unlikely, if not nigh impossible, for the legislation to complete…
Given people's experience of the defective concrete blocks scheme and the interim fire safety scheme, the difficulty is there is nothing simple or straightforward about either. In fact, the Government also took the decision in December 2023 to open the interim scheme. The Minister is correct that 25,000 homes have now been approved but three years on, only 600 homes have been approved and are able to access funding. …
This is a matter the Minister and I have discussed on a number of occasions. When does he hope to bring forward the promised increase in thresholds? As part of that, will he also consider abolishing band 3, which leaves a number of counties, particularly rural and western seaboard counties, in an exceptionally disadvantaged position, even with an increase? Can he also give the House an update on his Department's cons…
For every week or month that passes before a decision is made on this matter, a significant number of people will lose their position on local authority housing waiting lists. I have constituents who became homeless from their HAP tenancy, went into emergency accommodation and are marginally above the thresholds of my own local authority. Because income is now reassessed for eligibility as part of the annual review, …
Absolutely.
I thank Deputy Hearne for introducing this important legislation and giving us an opportunity to debate it this evening, although I have to say that there is a terrible sense of déjà vu. For 12 years, the Oireachtas and the wider public have been debating the need for a constitutionalised right to housing. In fact, so exercised was the then Government about the matter that, in 2013, it asked the then Convention on th…
The tenants in local authority and approved housing bodies social housing stock impacted by defective concrete blocks have been waiting a very long time for this scheme. I have to say that, like its parent scheme, the Minister is making an absolute mess of it. The defective concrete blocks scheme is itself defective. The Minister should talk to homeowners in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Fingal. They will tell him it is n…
The abuse and trauma suffered by women and children at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork city is not a matter of history. That suffering is hardwired into the present day lives of survivors and their families. It also echoes in the memory of those who never made it beyond the high walls and wrought iron gates.
The decision to grant planning permission to a private developer to build apartments on the site of …
I welcome the Minister's acceptance that the survivors and their families need compassion. However, what they need more urgently is a decision from Government. They have waited long enough and have fought far too hard to get where they are. Their ask is very clear. There is no ambiguity as to what they want. They do not want this building to go ahead. They want the State to acquire the site. They want a proper invest…
I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
The idea behind the social housing passport is a very simple one. It allows people on local authority housing waiting lists or in receipt of social housing supports like the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, to be able to move from one local authority to another and to take their years on the list or on transfer list with the…
The Minister of State is confirming to the House that they do not currently apply to HAP or RAS tenants currently. That is the position.
That is just factually correct.
Sure.
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. My natural disposition as a person is to treat people at face value, but ten years in this House has made a bit of a cynic of me. When I see the timed amendment, given the fact that a commitment was made by three previous Ministers to introduce the social housing passport over a period of 14 years there was clearly plenty of time to have considered those matters. Th…