I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this important motion on the cost-of-living crisis. As well as the issue of the action the Government needs to take to address the spiralling cost of living, and particularly the cost of energy that has hit hard, I would just like to underline a point about the failure of the Taoiseach to speak up yesterday on the economic impact of Trump's war on people here. Even if he is not …
TDs / Richard Boyd Barrett
Richard Boyd Barrett
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,583
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
153,844
words spoken in the chamber
Across 941 contributions
216
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
278
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 1,583 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 941 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 12 | 11 |
| February 2025 | 65 | 141 |
| March 2025 | 31 | 67 |
| April 2025 | 100 | 31 |
| May 2025 | 109 | 2 |
| June 2025 | 97 | 0 |
| July 2025 | 127 | 0 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 56 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 50 | 0 |
| November 2025 | 82 | 62 |
| December 2025 | 71 | 54 |
| January 2026 | 107 | 95 |
| February 2026 | 125 | 83 |
| March 2026 | 98 | 48 |
| April 2026 | 57 | 62 |
| May 2026 | 58 | 114 |
| June 2026 | 73 | 53 |
| July 2026 | 131 | 12 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 2 |
| September 2026 | 97 | 62 |
| October 2026 | 37 | 41 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 666 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 Dún Laoghaire 29 November 2024 to now
- party People Before Profit-Solidarity 29 November 2024 to now
152. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to reduce unaffordable rents in the private sector. [17818/26]
The Minister has introduced legislation allowing landlords to reset rents upwards, which is unbelievable when rents are already unaffordable for the vast majority of people and we have an unprecedented homelessness crisis. Does the Minister have any plans to make rents affordable in the private rental sector or is he just admitting this is a Government that is about increasing rents in order to benefit landlords who …
That is all just meaningless drivel for the people out there looking for affordable rents.
It is unbelievable. Average incomes in this country are €55,000 to €60,000. Many if not most people earn less than that. Take-home pay is €3,300 to €3,600 a month after tax. If you are looking for a three-bedroom apartment in Dún Laoghaire, you will not find anything below €3,000 today. Most of them are €4,500. I will read out a few figures in my area: €3,800, €3,050 and €3,650. More than 100% of the take-home income…
Seriously, young working people looking for accommodation are goosed with this Government. The Minister says supply is the answer. I am on the budget scrutiny committee. The Department of Finance in the Future Forty report is projecting that supply will not reach the level where it is possible, theoretically, that prices could come down until the end of the 2030s. We are stuck. Suzanne, who is looking to get from an …
The failure of the Government, and the Minister and Minister of State who spoke for the Government today, to condemn the attack by Israel and the United States on Iran is an absolute disgrace. The world is now paying a price for the bloodlust of the psychopaths who run Israel and the psychopaths of the Trump Administration who are attacking Iran and setting the entire region on fire, precipitating economic consequenc…
I am baffled by the speech of the Minister of State, and the Government should be ashamed of itself. It has really shown its true colours. It is paying lip service to the issue that is at stake, which is the well-being, mental health and safety of the children, young people and women who are victims of this toxic misogyny, which is not just online, as we have discovered.
It gets translated into brutal physical reali…
We need an emergency debate on whether our airport, Shannon Airport, is going to be used by the US military to prosecute what is a flagrantly illegal military assault on Iran, which has set the entire Middle East on fire and which is being conducted with a regime, Israel, that is in the dock for two and a half years of genocide.
Is the Taoiseach going to allow our airports to be used to facilitate that illegal war? We need to discuss that as a matter of urgency.
Not agreed.
We had Iranian protestors in this House.
13. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the first meeting of the delivery and monitoring committee for the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. [14447/26]
Parents, SNAs and school communities protested over the misguided move by the Government to take a significant number of SNAs from many schools across the country, a decision it had to backtrack on because of the outrage. They want to know they will not be in the same position in a year's time when the same issues happen again. Will the infamous 2014 circular, which they believe should be torn up, be rewritten with t…
How is the Taoiseach defining it?
29. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the implementation of the well-being framework published by his Department. [14448/26]
Outside the Dáil today, there was a protest by a large number of mostly young people who are newly qualified paramedics. The Taoiseach may have seen that they gathered a petition over the weekend. About 10,000 people have signed it. For the last three years, they have been doing a degree to become paramedics and they have also been working part time for the HSE. When they were brought in through a recruitment campaig…
The Taoiseach would want to do something about water quality in Dublin Bay.
Paramedics.
This Saturday at 1 o'clock in Parnell Square, disabled people, disability groups and the Affordable Ireland Coalition, of which I am a part, will be mobilising in a protest, demanding that this Government relent and concede the demand for an emergency disability winter payment of €400 for those with disabilities and, beyond that, implement a cost-of-disability payment. A young man named Jack, who was at our press con…
People should not have to beg.
I have asked for this debate for weeks on end at the Business Committee. Finally, we got there but it takes this long just to get a debate on what is an absolute disaster. The Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, said when he came into office that child and family homelessness was his priority. The Government has repeatedly said this is the biggest social emergency facing it. Yet, tomorrow, we are going to have the n…
It is all in the national maritime security strategy.
In the aftermath of 75,000 people have been slaughtered by Israel in a genocidal massacre and the so-called ceasefire, hundreds of people, including more than 100 children, have been killed and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian territories continues. The Government has reneged on its commitment to bring the occupied territories Bill before the House and pass it into law, and impose sanctions on the regime that is c…
When are we going to see the Bill?