Today, we will receive a report in the audiovisual room from Ireland's US driver licence exchange campaign on an unnecessary barrier faced by the Irish diaspora and returning citizens. I raised this issue many times. In November 2025, I asked the Tánaiste to liaise with the Minister for Transport to direct the RSA and the National Driver Licence Service to recognise previous Irish driving licences without an outdated…
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
I beg the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's indulgence for a few seconds. I offer my sincere sympathy to the family of Councillor Joe Carroll, who died in west Cork, I suppose, suddenly enough. It is a huge blow. It is fitting that we are talking about Our Rural Future because he was a man who fought for the rural people. I was on the council with him for two years. I found him to be a gentleman. We might have fought inside it…
Independent Ireland supports a lot of what is being proposed here this evening going forward. I would also bear the employer in mind. I do not think anyone has spoken here about the employer and the difficulties many employers have at this present time and which many employers have had for quite a period of time. It is about finding that balance between rooting out the wrong being done to employees in this society bu…
We have been a long time talking about targets in this House and we are way off our game. To be honest, I have spoken quite a lot about Barryroe oil field and fossil fuels since I came into the Dáil, and I often got Deputies sitting to my right screaming and roaring back at me. After the past two weeks, they now know that we cannot do without fossil fuels. Common sense has prevailed. In fairness, I will be honest tha…
He should at least apologise to the people of this country because he hurt people, and he does not need to do that. He is a former leader. He needs to advise maybe and not attack the ordinary people.
There are over 300,000 people in energy poverty. How can we create a solution to this? Is it solar panels? The Green Party had to take the hit on this big time because it was in government. To run a home on solar power,…
In 2016, when the Taoiseach was in opposition, he said:
...political parties should not think Parliament is their possession and that they can control anything that happens. To date, we have had such an experience, where Deputies have been removed from committees because they voted against the Government's line.
Why has he now done a 360° turn in trying to remove Deputy Danny Healy-Rae from the agriculture committe…
The proposed development of a respite and day service support for individuals with an intellectual disability and an autism centre in Dunmanway is a live project. It is a project that has been discussed for over ten years. While it moves at a snail's pace, sometimes it stops. The former Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, did a lot of work on it - I give her credit where credit is due - and had progressed it to the poi…
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward. As I do not have much time, I will just touch on some of the requirements in this motion. It looks to me as if people with additional needs are always the people who are suffering in this country and fighting to get basic rights. Special needs assistants are being treated unfairly and families are paying the price. The current system is rigid, cold and completely ou…
I want to raise serious and growing concerns regarding the proposed short-term letting and tourism Bill, and in particular the manner in which it is being progressed. The Bill has not yet been published, yet significant changes have already been signalled to thousands of small operators, family businesses and rural communities. Can the Minister of State clarify when the legislation will be published in full and why s…
The Minister of State is saying here that people will have to have complied by 20 May 2026. I spent the past seven or eight weeks in the Dáil trying to bring the Minister before us. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State. He is not the correct Minister to be here because he has nothing to do with tourism. I am not disrespecting the Minister of State. He has to do it. He is busy enough without being dragged int…
In the past month, Ireland has seen the damage we have done to our own economy by not being energy independent. We import fossil fuel and now we know how delicate this is. One major disruption and Ireland goes dry. We all know we must steer away from fossil fuels and towards renewables but the Tánaiste knows for today, tomorrow and far into the future, tractors, lorries and hi-macs will need fossil fuel to keep the c…
I appreciate Minister of State is here but I thought the Minister for energy would be before us today because the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, is before us every day of the week on every issue. He will soon become Taoiseach of the country. He had a great go at us on RTÉ yesterday. That is part of the game.
This is a very serious issue. I am very critical of the Green Party because it spent four or five years in…
I want to concentrate on the senior management in SouthDoc and their appalling treatment of a doctor and her patients in Clonakilty and its surrounds. Dr. Fiona O'Reilly has run an excellent practice in Clonakilty for many years. For health reasons, she is unable to do SouthDoc hours. Instead of SouthDoc working with Dr. O'Reilly, it has decided, in its wisdom, to punish her and her patients. Today, if you ring South…
An inquiry needs to be set up-----
-----as to who made this shocking decision.
That is not good enough.
That is not good enough.
We are talking about something I am very passionate about myself, being a soccer fan since I was four or five years of age. I have the luck or misfortune, whichever way you look at it, of following Arsenal Football Club.
It started when Liam Brady, David O'Leary, Frank Stapleton and Pat Jennings played there. There were I think seven Irishmen playing with at the time so it was like watching Ireland play instead of watching Arsenal play. We are suffering at the moment but I think we are holding out Sporting CP at the moment. It is 0-0 and we are 1-0 up on aggregate so it looks like we are heading to a semi-final, but at the same time,…
Eighteen days ago the Irish Haulage Farming Construction Contractors Amalgamation, IHFCCA, wrote to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and every Minister in this country outlining the crisis that we had and asking them to speak with it. The Government refused to speak with it. A few days later Independent Ireland asked to reconvene the Dáil and the Taoiseach refused to speak with us. Now the Taoiseach is here today saying h…
What is the silence about this? It is time to speak out and give us our opportunity to ask questions about the disgrace that went on in the past week.
The Minister of State is finished as an Independent.
Game over.
Hear, hear.
In the ten years since I came into the Dáil, I have never seen such a shambolic disgrace of a Government across the way. Its TDs should all be ashamed of themselves. Every one of them. They do not have the decency----