It is hard to believe that we are having this debate. There is absolute acceptance that Israel is an apartheid state that is engaged in genocidal action in Gaza. Another 25 people were killed at a so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid station. I do not know what defence there can be for what Israel is doing on a day-by-day basis. At least 55,000 people have been slaughtered and there is no end in sight.
While t…
TDs / Ruairí Ó Murchú
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,135
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
176,932
words spoken in the chamber
Across 897 contributions. Plus 338 contributions from the chair, not counted
413
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
246
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 1,135 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 897 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 10 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 33 | 33 |
| March 2025 | 24 | 23 |
| April 2025 | 29 | 57 |
| May 2025 | 38 | 75 |
| June 2025 | 33 | 69 |
| July 2025 | 205 | 34 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 203 | 23 |
| October 2025 | 31 | 50 |
| November 2025 | 51 | 85 |
| December 2025 | 41 | 68 |
| January 2026 | 68 | 54 |
| February 2026 | 37 | 56 |
| March 2026 | 36 | 45 |
| April 2026 | 48 | 55 |
| May 2026 | 62 | 53 |
| June 2026 | 67 | 31 |
| July 2026 | 58 | 36 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 33 | 22 |
| October 2026 | 28 | 28 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 581 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 Louth 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
I imagine everybody in here to speak on this has dealt with those who have not been able to avail of mental health supports on the basis of addiction to alcohol or drugs, or both. We are talking about incredibly complex cases. I would welcome the tenor of what the Minister of State is saying, but we are dealing with too many cases where there has been an inability to provide people with the service they require for o…
Many of the circumstances we are discussing we encounter in our work as TDs. I have gone to the Minister of State previously to discuss such circumstances, in which families, the Garda and others who become involved have looked for someone to be involuntarily admitted, generally on the basis that the person has some form of psychosis. Unfortunately, sometimes when GPs are called out, even following arrests under the …
We are talking about a very small number of people. An involuntary admission should be the last thing we look for, but there are cases where it is absolutely necessary. I will not get into the details of another case I recall, but we were dealing with somebody who had become a danger to himself and others. He had been well beyond a nuisance for a considerable time and had caused a huge number of issues in the place w…
I am not wedded to the amendment but I am wedded to the idea that there is a problem. I assume the Minister of State accepts there is a problem. I am not sure that what is proposed in the Bill will deal with that problem. It is the small number of cases where somebody needs support and a mental health practitioner will not sign, as the practitioner is not allowed, and the Garda cannot get a GP to sign. I mentioned a …
I accept a considerable amount of what the Minister of State said. There is a significant issue in terms of getting a certain cohort committed in the first place. What will be the solution? Others and I have been dealing with people who need care and, because they were not making a direct threat to themselves or others, even following an arrest by gardaí who thought they needed to be detained and put in a mental heal…
The Garda.
I take on board what the Minister of State has said. We will put the amendment so we can amend our amendment.
The big piece I want out of this is the code of practice, which would be provided to all the necessary stakeholders. Beyond that, I ask the Minister of State to look at the problem I am talking about and having something in the legislation. It could be just the need. That is sufficient at times in legislatio…
I do not think there will be disagreement about the Garda request for authorised officers. It is completely logical and makes sense. They will be best suited to delivering and will be utterly au fait with what is involved, which is not always the case. Some of the issues I spoke of earlier relate to the fact that not everyone is au fait with the law and with what is required. That is why I go back to the idea of a co…
It is probably too early to ask the Minister of State about the timeline, given that we are having a preliminary discussion on the structure. Can she give a general indication? I accept that this all depends on funding. What will the structure look like in comparison with the current structure, the difficulties with which I have spoken about previously? I imagine that other medical practitioners will have to be invol…
This amendment is an attempt to ensure we have a holistic means of assessment. We are talking about everything that impacts on mental health issues, including the environmental, the physical and the social. It is about the idea of ensuring we are assessing everything to make sure that we are dealing with all the issues impacting on a person. As Deputy Clarke said, it is then all about ensuring we can put the best fra…
The Minister of State should be well used to me using flexibility. I decided that I needed to mention the fact we need to put a certain emphasis on community services. That was already mentioned by Deputy Clarke, so I apologise. I did digress. I get that we are dealing with the issue of involuntary admissions, but we were trying to flesh out how to ensure we are talking about something that is holistic. That was the …
In fairness, a considerable number of people were worried. As the Minister of State said, they were sufficiently worried to come to her on that basis. It was said to me that we could be looking at a case where someone was involuntarily admitted and then they could not get treatment. I still have a fear when we are talking about making applications to courts and to the High Court. We all know that there are issues wit…
Is the Minister requesting further time?
I know but I meant this evening.
2. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the recent European Council. [22206/25]
9. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Disability will next meet. [23471/25]
24. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach to provide an update on the shared island initiative. [23472/25]
I do not know how many times I have come in here and spoken about housing. It is almost a single transferable speech although previously I might have said that things were not getting better but now it is very obvious for anyone to see that things are getting a lot worse. I have no doubt that the Minister and his Government colleagues have the same types of cases as those coming to my constituency office and are meet…
------and pushing back because they do not have the facilities and the tools but that would be a far longer conversation.
112. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he will provide an update on the preparation of the business case seeking to establish future State funding, from 2026 to 2030, to support efficient district heating projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30338/25]
Will the Minister of State provide an update on the preparation of the business case seeking to establish future State funding to support efficient district heating projects? I have spoken to the Minister of State before about the wider issue of district heating. Stakeholders in the industry say the support scheme for renewable heat, for example, needs to be looked at to make it more fit for purpose to deliver distri…
It would be good to have a timeline for when the Minister of State sees that business case being in place. I think we all agree on the necessity of renewables and decarbonisation. We have seen some district heating projects that make complete sense where waste energy, rather than remaining waste, is piped in and used as a means of providing heat. We need as much as possible of this done as soon as possible. The Minis…
I ask him the Minister of State to come back to me in writing on where that is. Obviously it is very positive. We all want to have schemes that are fit for purpose. We want to see we can actually deliver district heating systems at scale. I return to the Achilles' heel that exists with communal heating systems. I spoke to the Minister before about Carlinn Hall and I spoke to the previous Minister many times. He opene…
The first time I met the Minister of State was in County Louth when I was a county councillor. Our meeting was about flood relief schemes but unfortunately, on some level, it is the big plans that we still need to see delivered. It goes without saying that a significant amount of County Louth, and of Dundalk where I live, is below sea level. This goes back to land reclamation projects completed a few hundred years ag…