Sinn Féin supports an auto-enrolment pension scheme. We believe it is the Government's responsibility to foster a retirement framework that ensures workers are financially secure in their retirement. However, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a poor track record on retirement policy. While Sinn Féin believes workers should have the right to retire at 65 should they choose to, or continue to work if that is not thei…
TDs / Cathy Bennett
Cathy Bennett
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
641
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
54,833
words spoken in the chamber
Across 379 contributions
414
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
163
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 641 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 379 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 33 | 17 |
| March 2025 | 12 | 21 |
| April 2025 | 79 | 10 |
| May 2025 | 54 | 24 |
| June 2025 | 20 | 17 |
| July 2025 | 16 | 12 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 6 | 9 |
| October 2025 | 9 | 28 |
| November 2025 | 58 | 43 |
| December 2025 | 57 | 18 |
| January 2026 | 45 | 35 |
| February 2026 | 35 | 42 |
| March 2026 | 13 | 25 |
| April 2026 | 50 | 21 |
| May 2026 | 39 | 11 |
| June 2026 | 34 | 8 |
| July 2026 | 17 | 10 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 44 | 15 |
| October 2026 | 20 | 13 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 188 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 Cavan-Monaghan 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
I disagree with Deputy Byrne. As far as I can see, school transport is getting worse every year. Every year I am contacted by parents whose children have been utterly failed by this Government. With little to no notice parents are left to shoulder the burden of attempting to reschedule work and other commitments to deal with the Government's failures while children see buses full of their schoolmates and classmates p…
I welcome the parents in the Gallery. These parents suffer every day because this Government is not doing its job. Every child deserves a place in school and every child with additional needs deserves a place in school. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed, and continue to fail, children. It is the ordinary families like the parents here tonight who break their necks and are left simply to cope on their own, to pay …
Unbelievable.
Keep paying taxes.
I thank the Independent and Parties Technical Group for bringing forward this motion on this very important matter. This Government is utterly failing in terms of dental services. The Minister's role is to provide a framework in which services can reliably and efficiently be delivered and to adequately fund these services. As I see it, the Minister is utterly failing. Of the 200,000 schoolchildren eligible for dental…
That is a new excuse.
The Taoiseach should start driving the roads.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil introducing legislation to provide for revised governance and accountability for the HSE is farcical. In effect, the most substantive aspect of governance I see is a chief executive whose grossly substantial salary facilitates their operating as a mudguard for the Minister of the day. Regarding accountability, with scandal after scandal in our health service, the one certainty is always that…
There has been underfunding.
I welcome all the ladies in the Gallery who have suffered long enough. I thank Senator Maria McCormack who has travelled the length and breadth of the country to be informed of endometriosis. I have said in the House before that this State has a sad history of failing women. The Government continues to fail women today when it comes to the diagnosis and care for those with endometriosis. It is accepted by clinical sp…
100. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Finance if any analysis has been carried to assess the level of dividend forgone as a result of the State selling AIB, for each of the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. [39381/25]
I would like to acknowledge that the Minister is currently progressing legislative proposals on the guardianship rights of those who have murdered their spouse as well as the disclosure of counselling notes. It is important that we get the proposals right and it is welcome that they are progressing through the Oireachtas.
I am delighted to hear that the Minister is visiting refuges, but an area that remains of parti…
The Taoiseach correctly described the failure of the European Union to come to a unified position on Gaza as a huge strain on the bloc. He also said that if it fails to do so, Europe will have no credibility. European Union Commissioner, President Ursula von der Leyen, today lacks any credibility on human rights or international humanitarian law. It was Ursula von der Leyen who, at the onset of Israel's onslaught aga…
I welcome the students here tonight. We in Sinn Féin appreciate their efforts to go to college and better themselves.
In a matter of weeks, students will be returning to their studies or setting off to college for the first time. What should be a time of excitement for so many will turn into a very stressful situation as they face the challenge of funding for so-called free education being impacted. Not content in r…
The people of Monaghan and Cavan deserve adequate health services and care within their community. In 2002, the Taoiseach, as Minister for Health and Children, refused to give a commitment to protect emergency department services at Monaghan hospital at that crucial time. In 2009, the hospital's emergency department was closed for good. The minor injuries unit lacks basic equipment. As a result, people in Monaghan ar…
Who was over that?
I am going to keep at it.
That is not happening. Monaghan hospital is waiting years for an emergency department.
The Taoiseach needs to go to Cavan hospital, walk around it and see the people waiting in the emergency department.
People are waiting two weeks for a transfer.
The State has a long, sorrowful and shameful history of failing those within its care. Women, especially mothers, and children have endured the brunt of that long, sorry history. Whether we are talking about survivors of institutional abuse or the degradation of babies' organs; those responsible for delivering justice not only failed to deliver it but actively sought to deny justice. What invariably follows exercises…
I welcome that the Government is introducing legislation to address issues relating to the incorrect transposition of the EU copyright directive identified by the High Court and the CJEU.
Legislation is necessary. We understand that. A more equitable distribution of royalties is absolutely welcome, but the Bill the Government has brought before the House is poorly thought out, regressive and ill-conceived in terms o…
I am simply aghast to see how the Government conducts its business with arrogance and incompetence. I recall some months ago there being a discussion on the role of inconsistent policy in driving investment away. In his press release last week, the Minister said this legislation is intended to introduce certainty. It is railroaded legislation in which we have already seen holes. It is poor legislation that will intro…
At least the Taoiseach admits it.