-----because they are the people who are driving this into these areas.
TDs / Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
315
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
37,670
words spoken in the chamber
Across 118 contributions
432
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
109
topics asked about
Across 16 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 315 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 118 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 17 | 2 |
| March 2025 | 37 | 0 |
| April 2025 | 18 | 6 |
| May 2025 | 10 | 3 |
| June 2025 | 9 | 2 |
| July 2025 | 5 | 6 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 12 | 3 |
| October 2025 | 5 | 7 |
| November 2025 | 34 | 5 |
| December 2025 | 13 | 4 |
| January 2026 | 37 | 9 |
| February 2026 | 43 | 26 |
| March 2026 | 19 | 6 |
| April 2026 | 14 | 5 |
| May 2026 | 3 | 7 |
| June 2026 | 7 | 5 |
| July 2026 | 15 | 6 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 13 | 3 |
| October 2026 | 4 | 13 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 33 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 Wicklow-Wexford 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
At the end of the day, for me, it comes down to the best way to unite people, which is just to listen to the people, listen to local communities and try to have fair planning policies. As I said, how many centres are in Dalkey? How many centres are in Foxrock? It is about fair planning. That is the way I look at it.
We have to have transparency. There is the example of the two directors of a cafe which had a profit of €2,992. Three years later, they paid themselves €4.6 million. There is something very strange there. Looking at my area of County Wicklow, €1.3 million was spent on security for the vacant site of a failed IPAS centre. It is just a site sitting there. Deputy John Brady brought it into the public domain at a recent …
I will briefly reinforce Deputy Carthy's points. Two years ago, the Secretary General of the Department of integration gave out the figures for payments per night. He highlighted how the State was paying the private accommodation providers over twice the amount that was being paid to house asylum seekers in State-owned accommodation. That just reinforces the contradictions within this system yet again.
Similarly, and as I have a background in primary teaching, I am quite concerned at giving Tusla more of a role. Many people would certainly question the merits of this because over the past five years, there have been 7,000 recorded cases of children going missing from Tusla care. I remember Tusla came before one of the committees, when it acknowledged that 33 separated children or unaccompanied minors who were seeki…
Human trafficking is a problem that needs to be eliminated. I believe Ireland is ranked in tier two in terms of international comparisons, which means we are not really doing what we should be doing or can do to eliminate human trafficking. In the region of 67 victims of trafficking were formally identified, including five to ten children, and in many cases they ended up being subject to labour, sexual and other of f…
I want to be constructive. I would welcome any Government policy that will deal with the present chaotic system of IPAS processing and enforcement. However, we should make the decision. That is fairly obvious. Based on our own circumstances on a divided island, this issue cannot be addressed in the present system.
The system to date has not been fit for purpose. I want to be constructive, as I was saying. We need to…
In terms of absconding, are figures available for the number of people in the State subject to deportation orders?
Does the Minister have the number of people in the State subject to deportation orders, and have their records been checked in terms of absconding?
In terms of absconding, I know from a parliamentary question reply that there were 2,330 deportation orders last year-----
It is next, though.
I was coming to-----
The absence of Irish unity makes what we just voted on unworkable. On the passenger name recognition, PNR, data that is used, it is already used for the common travel area by both Britain and Ireland for tracking criminality. Can that be used to get a clearer picture of who has left the State? Both countries have passenger name recognition data.
Likewise, I think this amendment is helpful, constructive and sensible. To take a similar area in County Wexford, Rosslare was a really deprived village. It had two IPAS centres and was probably the most welcoming village in Ireland. It is the gateway to Ireland and Europe. People there raised over €100,000 immediately for the Ukrainian response and took in over 70 Ukrainians. It was one of the first villages to take…
The rural roads of County Wexford and parts of south Wicklow are deadly dangerous. They are literally disintegrating before our eyes. It is not a recent problem, as they have been at the bottom of the list in intercounty studies for the past 30 years. Recent floods have completely wrecked them. Despite this, it was announced today that County Wexford is now going to receive less funding for roads than it did last yea…
Vulture funds are robbing many of our young people of the opportunity to ever have a home of their own in their country. The Government is still allowing these vampires to snap up properties in bulk across the State and rent them back to people at inflated prices. How can families, young couples or first-time buyers outbid these massive investment fund? They simply cannot and it is wrong, disgusting and goes against …
People in Bunclody, Enniscorthy, Aughrim and Arklow are still trying to pick up their lives after the recent floods. The cameras have gone, the spotlight has moved on, and the Minister and the Taoiseach have arrived to tell the people the money is there, these things take time and there is no magic wand.
I think people in Wicklow-Wexford know that. They have been waiting for decades while the Government did nothing.…
We have seen a flood of deepfake sexual images generated by AI, often depicting children. As we know, Coco's Law criminalised the non-consensual recording or distribution of intimate images. However, it remains unclear whether the 2020 Act covers the creation of such images. It is important that the law keeps up with technology. In that context, the Government has been moving at snail's pace in many ways. We in Sinn …
This debate is on road safety. I will tell the Minister of State all about road safety in County Wexford and the area of south Wicklow where I live. We have been forced to drive on deadly, dangerous roads for three decades now. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will verify this. Roads are disintegrating in front of our very eyes; I kid you not. Even today, on the East Coast FM news, an engineer said he had to close many …
I have only spoken for two minutes.
I was told I had three minutes, but anyway.
I would welcome any Government Bill if it will deal with the present chaotic system of IPAS processing enforcement, as well as the speculation that is going on in villages all across this island. We definitely need to see faster processing of asylum claims, a more efficient decision-making process and less time spent by applicants in State accommodation, which is enriching cowboy developers and speculators all over t…
As the Minister knows, childcare costs are completely out of control. Many people are paying the equivalent of a second mortgage. Shockingly, nearly 1,000 childcare providers have closed their doors over the past six years. That is incredible. The Federation of Early Childhood Providers stated that childcare facilities are closing because of rising costs and the lack of funding from the Government. Childcare costs in…
Data from the EPA makes for frightening reading in terms of the quality of our water and the need for proper wastewater and water treatment plants. Avoca, in my local area, is one of 15 locations in Ireland where raw sewage is still being discharged every day, as identified by the EPA. Avoca must be prioritised as a village for upgrading. We were also promised progress with the long-awaited new state-of-the-art treat…
While AI has many benefits for convenience, it is not a force for good, and therefore must be regulated, as Grok's widespread generation of sexually explicit images of children has proven. Grok is run by the platform of X and the European headquarters of X is just a 20-minute walk from this Chamber, so there is no excuse for the Government not to act immediately. While AI is a form of high-tech plagiarism, and certai…