I am lucky enough to be here a long time. I have seen stuff before, but this one can walk under a snake's belly with a bowler hat on. It is so embarrassing what the Government is doing. I had a gentleman on to me last week who is on a waiting list for meals on wheels. The Government is on about a cost-of-living crisis, and it brings in this extortionate disgusting charge on blister packs for people. It was brought in…
TDs / Pat Buckley
Pat Buckley
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
454
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
25,737
words spoken in the chamber
Across 72 contributions
421
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
154
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 454 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 72 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 21 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 46 | 5 |
| March 2025 | 32 | 4 |
| April 2025 | 27 | 3 |
| May 2025 | 39 | 5 |
| June 2025 | 25 | 6 |
| July 2025 | 46 | 5 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 28 | 4 |
| October 2025 | 32 | 2 |
| November 2025 | 17 | 3 |
| December 2025 | 17 | 10 |
| January 2026 | 22 | 4 |
| February 2026 | 26 | 8 |
| March 2026 | 12 | 3 |
| April 2026 | 16 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 12 | 3 |
| June 2026 | 15 | 1 |
| July 2026 | 2 | 1 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 1 | 2 |
| October 2026 | 18 | 3 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 25 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 Cork East 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
There are no words for what the Government is doing to people. It is one of the most dangerous things. I have spoken on the radio about this. People have a system because, as I said at the start, this was brought in as a health and safety issue.
People will die. There is misinformation-----
-----misdiagnosis, overdoses, underdoses, you name it.
The Minister is playing a charge here. Please do not talk me down. I am giving her respect, and I have always been respectful to her.
She needs to withdraw this.
This temporary measure. She has spoken about a pause, but a pause on what? A pause on death? That is what is going to happen. The Minister had better reverse this because it is an utter disgrace.
I thank the Minister of State for being here. I want to draw to his attention what is not happening within Scouting Ireland. The problem is this is a legacy issue that goes back to the 1980s. I went to one of the same schools as many of these people did. It is about abuse and a specific teacher who got ten years in jail for raping young boys predominantly as a schoolteacher, a scout leader and a scout commissioner fo…
I did not name anybody. I am well aware of that. I thank the Acting Chair. The case about the schoolteacher is well documented. What I am trying to raise here, as the individual asked me to do, is to find out what recourse this person and others have right now. We have learned nothing from the mother and baby home scandal. What can I tell this individual? Somebody is going to tell me that it is a legal issue. Scoutin…
I thank the Minister of State. I want to let the Acting Chair know that the perpetrator is now deceased and the name is already in the public domain.
I thank the Minister of State for the response from the Minister's office. Every time I come in here, we do not know everything. I see in the response that €251,000 was ring-fenced for safeguarding. I would say Scouting Ireland has spent a lot more than €251,000 on it.…
I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill and I thank Independent Ireland. More importantly, I thank those in the Gallery. They are heroes of the State who get absolutely battered for telling the truth. It is an absolute and utter disgrace. I have a script but I want to speak about the comments of the Minister of State and the Government amendment. The amendment states
— whistleblowers have at their disposal ef…
You crashed the economy.
Is it 1% of it?
As a coastal TD, I have seen at first hand the decline in the fishing industry. The sector has suffered quota cuts, fleet reductions and fuel pressures. The input of cost increases in recent years has left them facing crisis after crisis. This is following decades of neglect, mismanagement and weak negotiations on their behalf by successive Fianna Fáil- and Fine Gael-led Governments. I want to touch on something beca…
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to contribute. I congratulate my Sinn Féin colleagues on tabling the motion.
I have watched this debate and I will start with a quote from a family. This puts us in the picture as to the reality of it. She writes:
My name is Shauna Dunne and I am the full-time carer for my 2-year-old son Jack, and the mother of a 4 year old girl called Demi. Jack is currently awaiting…
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Private Members' business. I commend Deputy Doherty on the tireless work he has done on this and on holding the insurance companies to some bit of account. We did not get many answers from the Minister of State. Many households who have had their renewal notices pop through their letterboxes in recent months have been shocked by huge hikes of 10% or more in their premiums, d…
I welcome this opportunity to speak on the strategy this evening. The aim of this national human rights strategy for disabled people is about ensuring disabled people are supported and empowered to live a full life.
I will touch on a few issues. Regarding transport and mobility, the strategy commits to taking the whole journey approach. I have raised it here through parliamentary questions on a couple of occasions. …
I congratulate the Minister of State. They say love is blind and marriage is an eye-opener.
We in Sinn Féin believe in a tax system that is fair. As part of this, inheritance tax is an important tool to tackle inequality and invest in public services to deliver a fair society. However, the current system is highly discriminatory towards beneficiaries of estates left by people with no children.
The capital acquisiti…
I thank the Minister of State for a pretty in-depth response. Sometimes, it can be fairly flippy-floppy here. I welcome her response. I have had a case where a beneficiary was living for more than three years in a house but did not know what the actual rules were and was panicking because that person did not know whether to buy it.
Since there has been a proper response, I will delve into it more myself. I understan…
I welcome the establishment of this commission. It is very welcome and very long overdue. It is essential that this commission of investigation must be survivor-centred and the terms of reference must be comprehensive and drafted in consultation with the survivors and the representative organisations. Given that up to 300 allegations of sexual abuse in 32 schools in Cork were recorded during the scoping exercise, I s…
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, for being here. It is much appreciated. I thank him and his Department for their engagement.
I am speaking today on behalf of the residents of Castlemartyr, Mogeely, Midleton, Whitegate, Killeagh and Rathcormac to urgently implore the Government and Minister of State to initiate tranche 2 of the flood relief programme for these communities. These towns and villages have b…
I thank the Minister of State for his reply, in which he stated, “Any flood relief scheme needs to map and understand the location and the flooding sources and constraints.” This is spot on, but I just want a preventative measure very fast. Land at Gleann Fia, the land next door to the site at Mogeely, owned by a farmer, can hold water, and there is an agreement in this regard. We can divert the water away from the t…
Many Corkonians have happy memories of taking the train to Youghal on a summer day. The train might have 14 carriages but we would be lucky to get a seat on the train from Midleton. Sadly, the train service between Cork city and Youghal has not been in operation for almost 30 years, when passenger services were withdrawn. An online petition has received more than 6,000 signatures, which shows the hunger among the peo…
I came across a quote today that said a sane state did not wage war against civilians and did not kill babies as a hobby. That is a very strong statement. What has been happening, particularly in Gaza, over the past number of painful months has been atrocious. It makes me nervous that people in the western world - in the whole world - are looking at what is happening Gaza and war and death have been normalised. This …
Presidential voting rights for all citizens of Ireland have always been high on the agenda for Sinn Féin. We strongly believe all Irish citizens resident on the island of Ireland should have the right to vote in our presidential elections. The President represents all the people of Ireland and it is only right that all citizens on this island be allowed to vote for their first citizen, their Uachtarán. Successive pol…