I thank the Minister and welcome the success of this scheme. I am concerned, however, about whether it will continue. On Monday last, I met with Barnardos in Knocknaheeny in Cork where a programme is based. As the Minister will know, Barnardos' total budget for the year is approximately €15 million. It gets €12 million through Tusla and there is a shortfall of approximately €3 million, which it is challenging. Barnar…
TDs / Colm Burke
Colm Burke
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,291
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
49,488
words spoken in the chamber
3,972 as a minister, 45,516 as a TD
430
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
239
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 1,291 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 266 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 7 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 23 | 7 |
| March 2025 | 73 | 4 |
| April 2025 | 62 | 18 |
| May 2025 | 64 | 38 |
| June 2025 | 72 | 11 |
| July 2025 | 89 | 16 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 96 | 12 |
| October 2025 | 53 | 18 |
| November 2025 | 105 | 33 |
| December 2025 | 74 | 9 |
| January 2026 | 57 | 4 |
| February 2026 | 62 | 7 |
| March 2026 | 91 | 17 |
| April 2026 | 67 | 17 |
| May 2026 | 61 | 3 |
| June 2026 | 72 | 16 |
| July 2026 | 72 | 18 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 64 | 0 |
| October 2026 | 27 | 18 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 247 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 North-Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
I thank the Minister. One of the issues I raised concerned Barnardos and the work it is doing. These are two separate programmes, but this is about co-ordination and working together. It is extremely important that this happens. The work the Department is doing means it has now acquired a great deal of expertise. It is the same with Barnardos and what it is doing. It also has a large amount of expertise. It is about …
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, for coming into the House at this late hour to deal with this issue. I very much appreciate it. As the Minister of State knows, this is an extremely important issue. It is to ask the Department of Health whether it intends to put in place a national nursing home care policy following on from the recent publication of the new ESRI report, which projects that we need to …
Regarding home care, there is the whole issue of long-term planning. For instance, in 2022, there were 28.7 million hours for home care. The prediction is that by 2040, it will be somewhere between 44.9 million and 54.9 million hours. That is a huge change. One of the problems I have at the moment is the total lack of planning for short-stay beds. We are not producing enough of them and it is causing a huge problem i…
85. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the total amount of funding allocated to the social inclusion and community activation programme in Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38272/25]
The issue in relation to funding is about people living in disadvantaged communities, supporting people with disabilities and people with a criminal record who, as a result, have difficulty finding employment. I am concerned that there is a lack of structure for people discharged from our prisons in accommodation and in trying to get them back into the system. Will more work be done in that area? It needs to be done …
It is interesting the Minister of State mentioned the Glen Resource Centre. I have been involved going back to 1996 when there was nothing at all there. We got funding from Europe to start the centre. There are now 80 organisations using the centre. It is a fantastic development with fantastic staff. All of the organisations there are working hard, providing a good service for the community. Coming back to the issue,…
Page 112 of the programme for Government sets out quite clearly the implementation of the Dublin city task force report. It also refers to the need to set up a task force for Cork city. We are now 150 days on and I am wondering when it is proposed to set up this task force. I fully understand that a lot of work is being done by the city council, the business association, the chamber of commerce and UCC but it is abou…
8. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the action taken by his Department to monitor the progress of young people who leave the youth diversion programme after their supervision period ends; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36372/25]
I come from an area where I was involved in a youth project where young people would have dropped out of school. That is where the problems start arising. We worked very closely with the Garda where we had the young people on a training programme. The people we took in were over 15. It is important to note that in a lot of these cases there is no family support. This is what I am saying to the Minister of State about…
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The work being done by all those people involved in the youth diversion programme is fantastic. They work very hard, also liaising with the Garda. That is what I have found in my experience of working with the local gardaí as regards trying to help people who have dropped out of the education system. One of the problems you find with the youth diversion programme is that o…
I thank the Deputy and very much welcome this debate. As my colleague, Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan, has set out, a major plan, the Cork metropolitan area plan, has been set out and was published on 18 June. Public consultation is currently taking place and it is important that people engage. We are not just planning for the next five or ten years but for the next 50 or 60 years. One of the things that will happen in Co…
Regarding forward planning, we need to address the concentration of development in Dublin and the greater Dublin area. We need to focus very much on places like Cork, Limerick and Galway. There is clear evidence that the growth in jobs continues in Cork. Therefore, we must develop the housing in order to accommodate those new jobs. I do not believe we are working hard enough to develop areas outside of Dublin regardi…
In fairness to the Irish College of General Practitioners, it has done a huge amount of work as regards having more GPs trained and putting in place a programme for people who have worked abroad and now want to work in Ireland. It has a two year programme whereas for the normal training, people would have to produce evidence of having worked abroad.
One of the things we need to fast-track in a lot of areas, especial…
At present there are 82 data centres in Ireland. They use up 6 TWh of electricity, which is 21% of all electricity produced. There are 14 data centres under construction, and a further 40 centres have planning permission. By 2030 there is potential for 100 additional data centres in Ireland. It is now a major challenge. There is concern that the fact they use 21% of the electricity will put pressure on the electricit…
I note the Department has progressed this matter. However, I am concerned about the time period with regard to developing this policy further. We are under pressure with increasing demand for electricity. Therefore, we need more facilities in place to generate that electricity, whether it is through solar farms, wind turbines or new forms of generating electricity. We need to fast-track it now because the economy is …
10. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the further steps the Department is taking to support small and medium enterprises to reduce the cost of energy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32906/25]
The issue I wish to raise, which I am aware was raised in the House recently, relates to the number of places for dental students in Ireland. In UCC in 2023, 61 students qualified as dentists. Of these, 25 were European, including Irish, and 36 were from outside Europe.
In Trinity the same year, 41 students qualified. Of these, 25 were Irish or European and 21 were non-Europeans. We have a huge shortage of dentists …
I fully accept that the Minister of State and her Department are working very hard on this issue, but there is a crisis here. We have got to deal with it before the college places are awarded in UCC and Trinity. That is the reason I am asking the Department to engage with them.
The other issue that needs to be dealt with - and this is a case where both the Department of Health and the Department of higher education …
May I just mention-----
The average time from when a medicine is approved by the European Medicines Agency to it being available in Ireland is 617 days. Between 2004 and 2025, 402 new medicines were approved by the European Medicines Agency, of which 71% had applications made in Ireland. In other words, for 117 medicines approved by the EMA, no licence or approval has been applied for here. It is the whole delay in the process. I fully acce…
I can go back to 21 years ago when my legal office and another legal office identified a major discrepancy where over 80% of people’s pensions were being deducted in public nursing homes. We identified that the health boards and the Department of Health did not have legislative powers to do that. As a result of that challenge, over in excess of €450 million had to be refunded to 20,000 families. That challenge subseq…
I raise the process of approving housing whereby we have to go through voluntary housing agencies, then through the Department of housing and finally through the Department of public expenditure. I am dealing with one project with 217 apartments for which the process started in September last year. It has gone through Clúid, the housing agency, through the Department of housing and is now in the Department of public …
I appreciate that.
I thank the Minister for coming to the House to deal with this issue. This is a really difficult time for children but, in particular, for parents because children place their trust in their parents. The parents in this case placed their trust in the consultants and took their advice in coming to a decision about the best way of managing the medical care required.
Simon Thomas, who has been with the British Royal Ho…