Has the Tánaiste or the Department contacted the families of those who are confirmed to have been detained, or even those who are expected to be detained? Does he have confirmation on when staff on the ground will have access to those who are detained illegally by the Israelis, and when they might have access to lawyers?
TDs / Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
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495
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
114,890
words spoken in the chamber
Across 584 contributions
377
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
101
topics asked about
Across 14 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 495 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 584 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 6 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 26 | 57 |
| March 2025 | 19 | 10 |
| April 2025 | 27 | 37 |
| May 2025 | 21 | 49 |
| June 2025 | 20 | 18 |
| July 2025 | 54 | 27 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 43 | 24 |
| October 2025 | 15 | 42 |
| November 2025 | 27 | 48 |
| December 2025 | 26 | 25 |
| January 2026 | 9 | 16 |
| February 2026 | 25 | 29 |
| March 2026 | 57 | 34 |
| April 2026 | 6 | 14 |
| May 2026 | 15 | 45 |
| June 2026 | 28 | 35 |
| July 2026 | 59 | 56 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 4 | 4 |
| October 2026 | 8 | 14 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 419 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 Cork South-Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
Contact with the families is vitally important. It must be of the highest priority. I urge the Tánaiste to be the first to pick up the phone if there is any escalation or downturn in the situation. The families and people generally are concerned about when these Irish citizens can return home. Does he have any sense of a timescale about how long the process is likely to take and when these citizens are likely to be r…
On the wider legal international picture, does the Tánaiste agree that what happened in terms of detaining people in international waters is a breach of international law?
While I would not necessarily advocate that the Government would do something provocative for the sake of it, ultimately the flotilla is a consequence of what is happening internationally. There has to be a firm response from the Irish Government and from the international community.
As a follow-up to the previous question, we rightly recognised the State of Palestine. I welcome that other countries have done so too…
The Tánaiste will be aware that the next ships that are part of the flotilla are only three or four days away. They contain other Irish citizens, including a colleague of ours, Deputy Barry Heneghan. We are all concerned that the same thing will happen. It is reasonable to ask: what action the Department is taking to prepare for this and what actions will be taken to ensure the welfare of Irish citizens, European cit…
We touched on the proposal yesterday. We all want to see peace. Arab countries may have been part of the process but the Palestinians themselves were not.
The Tánaiste made a point in relation to the genocide. This is a fundamental point. In lots of respects, the flotilla is a symptom. Ultimately, the disease needs to be cured. As long as there is a genocide that continues in Gaza, there will be people who will do w…
On a point of order----
-----I just want to take the opportunity to make it clear that I was not aware when I rose to my feet of the appalling attack on the Heaton Park synagogue. I add our party's condemnation of an appalling attack on a holy day for the Jewish community. If it emerges that the motive is antisemitic, antisemitism is a scourge that must be rejected by all. Our thoughts go to those affected.
Can I bring to the Tánaiste's attention something that he would be interested and concerned by? It has been confirmed to me that those Irish citizens detained have been denied access to lawyers. Adalah, which is a legal firm and civil society human rights organisation that represents people in these situations, stated:
Adalah has received phone calls from participants reporting that immigration authorities have alre…
Very likely.
As we sit in this Chamber, the Global Sumud Flotilla approaches ever closer to Gaza. We do not know what the coming hours will bring. We wait with much trepidation and concern for our fellow Irish citizens, citizens of the world and our fellow Oireachtas Members, including my colleague Senator Chris Andrews, with whom I am in contact every couple of hours. Yesterday, along with some colleagues, I met with family memb…
Deputy Ward is never happier than when he is following St. Pat's but I hope he is not too happy on Friday night. Best of luck to City.
The growth in the League of Ireland is a welcome development in recent years. More and more people are interested in and are going to games. In terms of the League of Ireland and our national team, we need to examine the issue of academies. It is not for nothing that we are not in th…
We are at a time of year when families are just coming up for air after paying the back-to-school costs and before long they will be looking at the big costs of Christmas and everything to do with it. Right now, there is very little air for them to get. They go into supermarkets and the grocery bill is higher than ever. If they are renting, their rent is skyrocketing. If they have mortgages, they are likely going up …
This matter relates to issues that the communities in Mahon and Blackrock in the south-east of Cork city are experiencing. Fundamentally, the answers people are looking for is how and when the problem that exists is going to be fixed. They have not received such answers. When a resolution will be found is not something the communities in question have a sense of at this point.
The main issue is a foul odour that can…
I thank the Minister of State. It is important that representations are made from the offices of the Minister of State and-or the Minister to Uisce Éireann in relation to this issue. I say this because the response seems to offer two potential causes for the malodour without necessarily nailing the company's colours to the mast as to whether it is the low water levels and the summer, the septicity, or a mixture of bo…
The Minister will be aware that in April there was a lot of concern in the Cork city area about the amalgamation of units across four Garda stations into two units, in Carrigaline and Douglas, and Bishopstown and Ballincollig. Subsequently, and after many years of campaigning on behalf of the people of Cork, with public representatives and Cork Chamber of Commerce and so on, I am glad to see for the first time in a l…
The summer months should be a time of respite and enjoyment for families. However, for far too many families it is a time of stress and worry as they try to figure out how to get on top of back-to-school costs. The costs are absolutely enormous, as the research by the Irish League of Credit Unions and others has identified. Many families are getting into debt or struggling with their savings to try to ensure their ch…
1. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence his plans to ensure sufficient funding is provided to resource Joint Induction Training Centre, JITC, Gormanston, Baldonnel, Haulbowline and DFTC infrastructure master plans. [49298/25]
This question relates to funding, primarily for training locations at Gormanston, Baldonnel, Haulbowline and the DFTC, and the infrastructure master plans for same.
I thank the Tánaiste. For the record, I appreciate there are constraints, given the window we are in, in terms of what the Tánaiste can tell me. What he will tell me is another question, maybe. In general, I put on record that we support increasing defence expenditure provided it is done in a wise and rational way. It is vitally important that we are investing in the areas of most relevance to us as an island nation,…
To come back to some of the brass tacks in terms of the training objectives outlined in the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, there was one objective for the future and another that I hope has been progressed a bit. Will the Tánaiste give an update on it? It was recommended that a new communication information workshop facility at the training centre would commence in 2024. The cadet school headquarters…
3. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence to provide an update on the national maritime security strategy; and the level of funding that has been committed for 2026 and 2027. [49299/25]
The area of maritime security is one of the most salient to us as an island nation. If we are talking about increasing defence expenditure, we must surely ensure that our seas are safeguarded against traditional threats but also against new and expanding threats such as threats to undersea cables, hybrid threats and so on. A maritime security strategy is obviously something that is very timely but it is vitally impor…
Addressing this in a way that is sustainable will require some current spending as well as capital spending and I might come back to that in my last contribution. The threats that are potentially faced are multiple. There are obviously the traditional issues that the Defence Forces faced in ensuring the protection of Irish waters in a fishing and general sort of sense but also as regards the issue of the undersea cab…
On that, and it partially relates to my first question, it is important after the budget that the Department would publish a document outlining where we now stand with the revised capital development plan and to mark that against the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. That would be a useful document if it were possible to achieve. One of the areas in which the gap between the current reality and the ambi…