As we are heading into the winter months, I raise the issue of flood preparedness. The Labour Party will not blame the Government for the rain, but we will blame it for how prepared or otherwise we are for it. In my constituency, families living in Grange Park and Woodside in Rathfarnham were devastated earlier this year by flooding. Huge and costly damage was done. A flood scheme is being built along the Whitechurch…
TDs / Ciarán Ahern
Ciarán Ahern
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
860
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
128,105
words spoken in the chamber
Across 238 contributions
355
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 860 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 238 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| February 2025 | 17 | 8 |
| March 2025 | 74 | 7 |
| April 2025 | 25 | 9 |
| May 2025 | 29 | 18 |
| June 2025 | 16 | 11 |
| July 2025 | 79 | 9 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 52 | 9 |
| October 2025 | 18 | 6 |
| November 2025 | 45 | 16 |
| December 2025 | 54 | 11 |
| January 2026 | 95 | 15 |
| February 2026 | 82 | 13 |
| March 2026 | 48 | 6 |
| April 2026 | 75 | 20 |
| May 2026 | 26 | 19 |
| June 2026 | 52 | 28 |
| July 2026 | 24 | 6 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 34 | 22 |
| October 2026 | 15 | 4 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 109 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 South-West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Labour Party 29 November 2024 to now
My wife and I recently went through the rigmarole of trying to secure a childcare place for our youngest son. It was an absolute nightmare. Thankfully, we are sorted now, 18 months later. Putting myself in the shoes of a parent with a child in a childcare facility that is not in core funding, or worse, a parent who has not been able to get a place, I would have been seething listening to yesterday’s budget announceme…
Will the Tánaiste provide us with an update on the work under way to change regulations here to allow for plug-in solar panels? We were previously told that this work would be complete by September. There are over 1 million plug-in solar panels already in use in Germany. Regulations in the UK have recently been updated to allow for the sale and installation of such panels. This is a simple and cheap solution to help …
I welcome the Bill, which the Labour Party will be supporting. While it is largely technical in nature, it is important. It is kind of crazy that it has taken this long to get around to aligning the statutory limits for drugs and alcohol for rail workers and train drivers with those in road traffic legislation. Deputy Wall will be raising some serious health and safety concerns about overcrowding on commuter lines be…
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion today. It is a great motion. I think we in the Opposition are all of one mind on this. There is absolutely no way we would be proceeding with an increase in public transport fares at this time. I have read the Government's counter-motion and I read the Minister's comments earlier. By reading them, you might thing we were living somewhere in continental Europe such is…
121. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Transport if he will provide the €70 million in funding that the NTA says is required to avoid the increase in public transport fares; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68009/26]
This is a simple one for the Minister of State. I am glad to hear from Deputy Buttimer that the budget negotiations with the Department of public expenditure are ongoing because my question is whether the Minister will provide the €70 million in funding that the NTA says is required to avoid the increase in public transport fares.
I thank the Minister of State. Often when I ask a question of the Minister for Transport, I am fobbed off to the NTA because I am asking about operational matters but this is a funding matter. It is a hugely disappointing decision from Government and a baffling decision in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and a climate crisis. The current policy has been working for the Government. It is a really popular policy …
I certainly will not dismiss the very significant investment in public transport which is really welcome. The problem with the PSO is that it is not keeping pace with the volume of users now and the demands. The Minister of State talked about 38% of the costs of the PSO being covered by fares but public transport pays for itself in other ways through reduced congestion, safer roads and lower carbon emissions. The ide…
I move: ""That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
Is lá mór bróid dom é an lá seo mar tá mo chéad phíosa reachtaíochta tar éis an Dara Céim a bhaint amach. Táim ag tnúth leis an díospóireacht. Tá súil agam go mbeidh sé go maith agus fiúntach, agus go dtabharfaidh an tAire Stáit a thacaíocht don Bhille.
This is the first Bill I have introduced. Its Title continues the long Labour Party tradition of snappy marketin…
I am open to amendments.
I thank all the Deputies who spoke here this afternoon and I appreciate the support from Deputies Cronin, Paul Murphy and Heneghan. I thank the Minister of State for being here. Obviously, it would have been preferable if the Minister could have been here but I appreciate the Minister of State is the designated survivor today, so I thank him for his time. I am disappointed to hear he will not be supporting my Bill. P…
It is a comprehensive report. It is worth the Minister of State’s time to read and consider it.
I have a couple more points in response to the Minister of State. He mentioned that Ireland’s industrial electricity demand is primarily concentrated in our digital economy and that this is our core energy-intensive industry. That is fine but what is happening at the moment is that multiple Ministers are using this argume…
I thank the Deputies from Independent Ireland for bringing this motion forward today. Everyone in this House knows and agrees that we are going through a severe and extended cost-of-living crisis. We all want to do everything in our power to protect people most at risk from energy poverty. Many people in the country are struggling now. However, the vast majority of us in this House, in opposition at least, agree on t…
4. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment in light of recent reporting on data centre energy consumption, water use, carbon emissions and their impact on household energy bills, if he is confident in the Government’s current strategy and if he is proposing any changes to it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65969/26]
It might be a bit tedious answering the same question three times but there is a reason that the first question asked by each of three Opposition climate spokespeople has been on data centres. It is because of the level of concern that exists in the Opposition. We see around the world that people are waking up to the impact that data centres are having in their communities, from energy use to water use. The Minister …
Absolutely, and we are all focused on bringing through more renewable energy. Offshore wind is vital. Our issue on this side of the House is that the renewable energy we are creating at the moment is being gobbled up by data centres. We also know the impact this is having on energy bills. We also know how much water they use. I know it is a relatively small percentage but there is an unfairness at the heart of how th…
7. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the assessment his Department has made of the impact of the exceptionally hot and dry conditions experienced in Ireland during summer 2026 (details supplied); the additional measures he intends to introduce to protect and support communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65985/26]
We had a great summer here. We all enjoyed the bit of heat, but it is the second year in a row where we have experienced our hottest summer on record. Temperatures that used to be anomalies in the past are now becoming consistent. It is that direction of travel that we are really concerned about, because we all know it has such huge impacts on our society. This is the case in urban areas when it comes to a lack of gr…
With El Niño happening next year, this sitation is presumably going to get worse. We are likely to have another record heatwave next summer. Aside from the issues we spoke about earlier, there are also serious health implications here as well for vulnerable communities and older people. The 2023 climate action plan said it was necessary to develop a new public health heatwave plan and to seek to ensure more uniform p…
45. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment for an update on the status of the Climate Action Plan 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65972/26]
We have been waiting for a long time. We were told the plan would be published by the end of quarter 3. I heard the Minister refer to the plan for 2026 being published by the end of October as well as the plan for 2027. It would be very welcome if the Minister of State could confirm that. It is better late than never that the Government is getting its act together. This is about transforming our theoretical targets i…
The Tánaiste recently echoed his predecessor as leader of Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar, in saying that this Government will provide a budget for people who get up early and go to work. Was the Tánaiste thinking that this includes the tens of thousands of workers who stand at 7 o'clock every morning at bus stops and in train stations across the country five days a week, who are now facing an average increase of 15% in thei…
----- which was trumpeted at the start of this Administration. The NTA does not have the money to do things right because it is not getting it from the Government. The Government is throwing commuters under the bus. The Government was able to find almost €1.2 billion behind the back of the couch to subsidise diesel and fuel. Why can we not look after commuters in the same way?
The Labour Party absolutely supports the main thrust of this Bill, which is to improve data sharing between the State bodies responsible for road safety, that is, An Garda Síochána, the RSA and our local authorities. At present, the information exists but the people who need that information to make our roads safer do not necessarily have access to it. That situation has been allowed to persist for too long. Neverthe…