My office has been inundated with requests from constituents seeking assistance in expediting their driving tests. These are mostly young people and they are waiting ten months or more for a driving test. Many of these have secured job offers but are unable to accept them due to the lack of transportation in rural Ireland. We do not have a frequent bus service, the Luas or regularly available taxis, as urban areas do…
TDs / Michael Collins
Michael Collins
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
326
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
214,846
words spoken in the chamber
Across 610 contributions
370
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
93
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 326 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 610 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 7 | 5 |
| February 2025 | 16 | 31 |
| March 2025 | 9 | 37 |
| April 2025 | 3 | 28 |
| May 2025 | 27 | 36 |
| June 2025 | 6 | 29 |
| July 2025 | 12 | 25 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 18 | 23 |
| October 2025 | 10 | 28 |
| November 2025 | 5 | 44 |
| December 2025 | 18 | 33 |
| January 2026 | 35 | 54 |
| February 2026 | 25 | 37 |
| March 2026 | 2 | 33 |
| April 2026 | 76 | 54 |
| May 2026 | 29 | 29 |
| June 2026 | 12 | 31 |
| July 2026 | 3 | 15 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 2 |
| September 2026 | 3 | 14 |
| October 2026 | 10 | 21 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 264 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 South-West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Independent Ireland 29 November 2024 to now
These statements on international security and international trade provide an important opportunity for TDs to have their say. In recent weeks and months, we have had many people speaking here about our neutrality and participation in what is happening across the world. The Tánaiste only recently stated that as far as he is concerned, we need to spend a lot more money on our defence. I agree with him. It is hugely im…
Independent Ireland will also be supporting this motion on young carers. I thank the Labour Party for putting forward this very important motion. It is astonishing to think we have 67,000 young carers in this country. We have given them nothing but lip service over recent years, which is an injustice to those young people. Many of them are in the Gallery and were in the audiovisual room earlier. We need to show them …
I agree with the previous two speakers in relation to speaking time, and it needs to be resolved as business needs to be done.
Last week, a deal was struck by the Department and the unions on a 9.25% pay increase for many healthcare workers under section 39 contracts. This is to be rolled out over a two-year period. I publicly welcomed this long-awaited move only to realise that the devil is in the detail for sectio…
Almost every day here we talk about housing targets. Today, in one leading newspaper, an article states that this Government will be 13,000 homes behind the 2027 targets it set last November. This is one crisis that must be resolved immediately. Another crisis, though, is rural, one-off planning. It is almost grinding to a halt. I have up to ten people coming to me weekly in west Cork. In some cases, they have spent …
We are years talking in the Dáil about housing. I listened to the Fianna Fáil Deputy who spoke previously and I have to agree with him. Regarding Ukrainians and others, we have been promising that all sorts of construction can be done and all sorts of structures can be built but we cannot do anything for our own selves. That is something we need to do very soon. I hope the Minister will look at housing in a different…
I forgot to congratulate the Minister and Minister of State on their appointments to their positions. I wish them well going forward. I hope we can work closely together. One of them is from my own constituency so we should be able to work closely together. I think this is the second or third time I have spoken about housing today in the Dáil. It is a huge crisis and a huge issue. It does not matter if it is a young …
It is no problem at all.
I move:
That Dáil Éireann:
notes that:
— overspending and waste within the public sector not only erodes trust in Government but also diverts resources from essential services; and
— as members of Dáil Éireann, and therefore custodians of the public purse, we have a duty to the people of Ireland to be committed to ensuring that taxpayers' money is managed responsibly, efficiently, and transparently;
acknowledges…
Independent Ireland.
You went in-----
I have listened to all the speakers. I am disappointed with some of the parties here. I am not pointing the finger at Sinn Féin but at the Labour Party and the Social Democrats. They continue to count out waste in this Dáil. We put forward a working solution and I do not think those parties proposed an amendment but came in and criticised it. That is outrageous. The Social Democrats do not believe in this new body. W…
The Minister of State is a man I respect-----
-----but I will not respect him for that, if he does not mind me saying that now.
How can the Minister of State defend any Government or previous government that spent €808,000 on a Dáil printer and wasted the money? It spent €1.43 million on a security hut. It spent €2.5 billion, heading to €3 billion, on a children's hospital. It spent €22 million on a Covid ventilator that was never used. It spent €2.5 billion in medical compensation payouts. The Dáil bike shed cost €336,000. The Government wan…
-----who have a mind to change this country and give the money back to the people so they can have services like wastewater treatment plants and public transport. The people of Ballinascarty have have not had their rivers cleaned out and so their houses get flooded. That is where we are at. There is no money in the purse and no money announced yet.
I tried. I put our policies-----
-----but all they took was a scrap of paper from ye.
All they took was a scrap of paper off the back of an A4 page with a couple of old biro prints across it.
That is what they took into government and we are feeling the effects of it on my side of the country since.
For the past two years, parents in Bantry and the surrounding areas have been advocating for a dedicated school bus service to transport over 30 children from Bantry to Schull. Despite numerous representations to the previous Minister for Education, this issue remains unresolved. Today I am appealing to the new Government to address this pressing need. Providing a school bus for these children is a modest request, es…
I wish the Minister of State the best in his role.
We were all asking for more gardaí on the ground and in our communities. It is no surprise that, in the few minutes I have, I will be making this request for west Cork. We are very fortunate in west Cork, particularly the Ballydehob–Schull area, to have Garda Jonathan McCarthy living and working. That is very valuable. A garda like Jonathan is of incredible value to…
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association, the ICSA and the Irish Rural Association are today protesting about GAEC 2 at Agriculture House. If this is not stopped, it will mean more regulations acting against Irish farmers. They need an urgent meeting with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Instead of giving these genuine farmers debate time today, I am asking the Taoiseach to meet with Opposition…
Yesterday's meeting of the Dáil reform committee was a staged set event by Government politicians present. My understanding was we would all put forward proposals, which we did as well as the Government did, then discuss them, iron out what issues we had and draw up an agreement, but instead of Dáil reform being Dáil reform, last night it became Dáil dictate with the Chief Whip calling a vote. It was a first for Dáil…
Taoiseach, I have always advocated for the rights of Irish fishermen whose quotas have been decimated over the years with 25% lost after Brexit and no recovery of quota since. Irish boats have, for generations, fished Rockall but in 2021, the Scottish Government claimed the rock and a 12 mile limit around it. Has the Irish Government conceded the ownership of Rockall to the UK? If not, what is the Government proposin…