One third of those who are homeless were evicted from the private rental sector.
Quite simply, they would not be in emergency accommodation and the children to whom I refer would not be suffering this hardship if the Government had not lifted the no-fault eviction ban. We have an emergency. We have the highest level of child homelessness ever. If that is not an emergency, I honestly do not know what is. The Governme…
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
I was wondering about that.
175. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he is satisfied that film producer companies in receipt of the section 481 film tax credit or meeting the test for quality employment and fully vindicating the employment and copyright rights of those working in the film industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [69915/25]
There is €125 million a year, I think, or probably higher, in section 481 film tax support for the film producers of this country. You can add in another €20 million or €30 million from Screen Ireland. It is a lot of money; billions over several decades. Is the Minister enforcing - I believe he is not - the quality employment and training condition? It is about guaranteeing decent quality employment and training for …
The Minister's Department gives out section 481. The idea that he is not responsible for policing the quality employment and training condition is ridiculous. We need joined-up thinking. Everybody is playing pass the parcel - the Department of arts, the Department of finance and the Department of enterprise - and nobody is responsible. Therefore, workers are blacklisted, overworked, stressed and not treated properly.…
The Minister is getting his information from producers.
On the work of crew, this survey was responded to by 800 workers. Has the Minister or Deputy Byrne seen it? No, because Screen Ireland has seen it but they have not published it because it paints a very unflattering picture. The words used by the film workers include, "Producers' reluctance to give the crew their full needs", "night shoots and rest days that aren't paid properly", "tight schedules", "long hours", "be…
It is blacklisting.
I thank Deputy Coppinger for bringing the Bill forward. I am very happy to support it.
I love sport. I am passionate about sport but I find it had to hard to understand how anybody could gain entertainment from a large group of people on horseback, with a pack of dogs, pursuing a frightened animal, and then watching and celebrating as that frightened animal is torn to pieces by dogs. That is not a sport. That is jus…
He did not defend it at all.
He did not. What he did was try to misrepresent the Bill. That is what he did.
He said there were things in the Bill that are not in the Bill, and then he implied that, really, this was part of a wider agenda of opposing rural pursuits, which it absolutely is not. However, the Minister did not actually defend it. He did not defend it because he knows it is indefensible. It is utterly indefensible. Please tell me how it is a legitimate form of the sport to tear a frightened animal limb from limb…
92. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Youth whether it is her intention to set up a redress scheme for victims of historical sexual abuse perpetrated by both lay and religious teachers in schools; and the timeline for the establishment of any such redress scheme. [70943/25]
I just got off the phone with a lovely man in his 70s. Let us call him Stephen. He was absolutely savagely abused when he was nine years old and for quite a while. It is only recently, now that he is in his 70s, that he has been able to acknowledge the damage that was done to him. He wants to know when this investigation is going to be established so that he can tell his story. He also wants to know whether people li…
Stephen described to me in really emotive terms the sadistic abuse that he suffered as a nine-year-old boy and even earlier. He was savagely beaten, humiliated and stripped naked to such an extent that he fled school and never learned to read and write. He described in very emotional terms how he was never able to read bedtime stories to his children, how he imagined it was all his fault, and the shame he suffered al…
We really need a clear timeline. That needs to happen soon. I am also worried that the terms of reference of this investigation may exclude people because of the type of abuse they suffered. What I described to the Minister of State was absolutely horrendous abuse. Whether it falls within a strict definition of sexual abuse is debatable but it was sadistic, brutal and life-changing abuse. Today, when he was describin…
There is no facility for that.
It seems that when Donald Trump and the big military powers in NATO tell this Government to jump, it says “How high?” We have had a chorus of voices saying we will spend more on weapons. Simultaneously, we are going to get rid of the triple lock and undermine our neutrality. When it comes, however, to the promise the Government made on the occupied territories Bill to impose sanctions on the state committing genocide…
Where is the occupied territories Bill?
No action.
214. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science whether he will introduce a sectoral minimum wage of at least €30,000 for PhD researchers. [67836/25]
There are in the region of 10,000 PhD researchers in this country. It is accurate to say that much of the higher education system is run on the basis of their exploitation, because the vast majority of them are earning less than the minimum wage for teaching in our universities and institutions. Will the Minister commit to treating them as workers and to paying them a minimum wage of at least €30,000 a year?
First of all, only 30% of the people in question get the Research Ireland €25,000. That increase happened because of a sustained campaign by postgraduate workers and PhD researchers, but huge numbers of them do not get it. It should be a minimum requirement and €25,000 is also, frankly, poverty wages. It is a stipend, of course, so those in receipt of it do not get any of the normal benefits associated with working e…
The very best figure of €25,000 is poverty level. In a cost of living crisis and with the cost of accommodation, it is poverty level and they do not get any of the benefits because it is a stipend, even though in reality it is work. They do not get maternity leave, sick pay or any of the normal benefits workers would receive, even though their counterparts in the Netherlands and Germany get much higher wages and are …
I am a little disappointed we do not have the arts Minister in the House. With all due respect to Deputy Buttimer, he is a Minister of State at a Department that has nothing to do with this.
Our identity as a country, our history and our heritage are totally tied up with culture and the arts.
Probably more than most countries, our identity and reputation internationally are linked to the arts and music. We have an …