This question is a logical follow-on from the one posed by Deputy Stanley. It asks the Minister about action on cadet pay. I ask it against the background of the continuing crisis in recruitment and retention. It is not just a question, but a call for urgent action.
TDs / Seán Ó Fearghaíl
Seán Ó Fearghaíl
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905
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
14,161
words spoken in the chamber
Across 94 contributions
327
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
245
topics asked about
Across 20 departments
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Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Questions asked 905 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 94 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
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| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 4 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 45 | 8 |
| March 2025 | 36 | 6 |
| April 2025 | 32 | 7 |
| May 2025 | 41 | 6 |
| June 2025 | 35 | 1 |
| July 2025 | 55 | 1 |
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| July 2026 | 94 | 11 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 32 | 1 |
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Plus 91 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
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- constituency Kildare South 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
I acknowledge the Minister's positive disposition to this matter in many aspects of her response but the general secretary of RACO, Conor King, recently set out in the Irish Examiner the fact that cadets are paid far less than the enlisted soldiers they work beside in their first five years. This anomaly would be indefensible in any other profession. Cadetship is a gruelling high-intensity apprenticeship like no othe…
I have to proudly state that those who emerge from cadet schools are people of an extraordinary calibre that we are all enormously proud of. Low pay might be tolerable if the cadetships were short or if the financial impact disappeared once training ended but under the single pension scheme, earnings are averaged across an entire career and, therefore, at the end of a career, the cadet is still being penalised by vir…
8. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation for an overview of the progress made to date under National Strategic Outcome (NSO) 10 of the National Development Plan 2021-2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27479/26]
10. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Taoiseach to report on his recent visit to China. [24951/26]
I am proud of what the Minister and the Government is doing in continuing the work in the past of engaging with the diaspora. When we have thought in the past about the diaspora, we have tended to talk about the kings of industry around the world and then the disadvantaged and how we might support them but in recent times, we have large concentrations of highly skilled young people who have emigrated and concentrated…
I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, on having been the person dispatched by the Government for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Poland. I wish to ask him if while there his meeting with Secretary of State, Mr. Niemczycki, was successful and enabled him to build on the wonderful person-to-person relationships that exist now, and existed for many years, between Ireland and Poland?
It is quite extraordinary the manner in which the relationships have developed between Irish people and Polish people. Polish people were among the first major wave of immigrants that came to work in this country during the Celtic tiger. They demonstrated a fantastic work ethic and they built a relationship with Irish people. There has been a lot of intermarriage. I think Polish is now the third most frequently spoke…
Could I take it that the Minister of State is very satisfied that Donald Tusk is someone who will be able to ensure Poland remains very much at the centre and at the heart of the European movement? I wish to ask also about their other neighbours. How do Polish people feel about, and are they supportive of, Moldova joining the EU? What, if anything, was said to the Minister of State about the situation in Belarus wher…
It is appropriate to be able to pose this question in the aftermath of International Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January. I want to ask what the Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is doing to support the work of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Holocaust education programme.
If we needed proof that an education programme is important, that was given to us in a recent survey undertaken by the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, with the involvement of an Irishman, Professor Gideon Taylor, son of a former distinguished Minister and Member of these Houses. As the Minister of State has pointed out, it was established that 10% of people believed that the Holocaust was a myth…
I commend the Minister and the Government on what they are doing. It is really important work. When does the Minister of State imagine that this work will commence in the 600 schools around the country where it is going to be delivered? Does he think there is a possibility, given that children and young people are not just influenced by what happens and what they experience in school, but particularly by what they ex…
Deputy Ardagh and I are trying to establish what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is doing regarding the repression of civil society and democratic opposition and the undermining of democracy and the rule of law in Russia.
For the past four years, the world has been focused on Russian aggression and the appalling war in Ukraine perpetrated on a foreign, sovereign people by the megalomaniac that is Putin. We have lost sight of what may be happening within Russia itself, and that is understandable. When we think of opposition in Russia, we think of the late, brave Alexei Navalny, whose second anniversary will be marked next week. We are …
It is interesting that the Minister of State talks about stooges. There are 450 members of the Russian Duma. One wonders how many of them are actual puppets or stooges because we have not heard very much in the West about any opposition from the ranks of the Duma to the activities of Putin and his foul regime. One would wonder how, on the law of averages, among 450 people, there are not, if even by chance, some peopl…
87. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade her assessment of the current situation in Belarus; if she has had any engagement with the Belarus government-in-exile; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8280/26]
What is the Minister of State's assessment of the situation in Belarus, where the dictator Lukashenko is an ally and, indeed, puppet of the Putin regime? How does the Minister of State feel about the situation there at present?
I compliment the Minister of State on the positive and comprehensive response. I note that on 13 December Belarusian authorities released 123 prisoners following negotiations by the US Administration, which had agreed to lift a sanction on Belarusian potash. The majority of prisoners were sent to Ukraine, and a group of nine sent to Lithuania. Most of those released had been prosecuted and imprisoned for the peaceful…
I agree with the Minister of State because it is a tightrope situation. I think most of us in this country would look to what was said by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is a charismatic leader many of us in this House have met. She displayed tremendous courage in taking up the baton after her husband was arrested and has effectively been running a Belarusian Government in exile. She has said the European Union sanctio…
I want to make a brief comment as co-ordinator of the Ireland-Morocco Parliamentary Friendship Group. In recent times, I have become increasingly aware that an ever-increasing number of countries have moved to a position where they see the solution to this intractable problem, which must be resolved, having regard to sovereignty and human rights. More and more countries, including many of our European colleagues, see…
I am not on that one.
In Kildare, Sensational Kids is a social enterprise that provides assessment of needs and a range of therapies for children. It is also operational in counties Monaghan, Mayo and Cork. Approximately two years ago, on foot of a commitment of €9.5 million from the Department of justice's IIP programme, complemented by local fundraising, Sensational Kids commenced construction of a national child development centre on a…
Yes.
I am grateful to the Minister for being present to deal with this matter. I want to declare an interest in that, as the convener of the Ireland-Morocco Parliamentary Friendship Group, this is an issue in which I am keenly interested. Will the Minister provide an update on Ireland's stance on the question of Western Sahara in the context of the recent developments at United Nations level?
This 50-year-old dispute rem…
I thank the Minister for that response. It has to be accepted that, I think, we are building an ever stronger relationship between Ireland and Morocco. We have opened our embassy there. Our ambassador, Helena Nolan, is doing a superb job for us in Rabat. We all know the Moroccan ambassador to Ireland because he is ever present in this House and never loses an opportunity to promote his country. We know that many Iris…