Over the last number of years, landowners have been terrorised by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and its compulsory purchase order, CPO, powers to railroad walkways, cycleways and greenways through their farms, splitting working land and pulling down farm sheds, all in the name of walkways and cycleways costing tens of millions of euro without a worry in the world. If a landowner says "No", TII waves the CPO.…
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
It is scandalous.
From all I can gather, the Government has made a decision to oppose the Bill today, which I fully support. Before I come to the Bill itself, I have to say it is becoming almost impossible to take People Before Profit seriously. Recently I saw one of its social media posts, which spoke about going from the streets of Paris to the streets of Dublin. At a time when the world has watched scenes of disorder, chaos and int…
Peaceful protests all of the time.
When we turn to the Bill, we see even more of the same ideological madness. The Bill asks the Irish people to set aside basic common sense and basic biological reality. It asks us to pretend that something understood by humanity since the beginning of time is now somehow up for debate. A child is not born non-binary; a child is born male or female. A boy is a boy and a girl is a gi…
Today is, first and foremost, about the Stack family. For more than four decades, the family of Brian Stack have carried an unimaginable burden. They lost a husband, a father and a public servant in the most tragic of circumstances. Since then, they have endured years of grief, uncertainty and a long search for answers. No words spoken in this Chamber today can undo that loss. No apology, however sincere, can bring B…
The core of this Bill is about making it easier for Irish troops to be deployed overseas. For this to happen, Independent Ireland is very strong in its belief that the people of Ireland will have to have their say.
This would be by holding a referendum, simply. What is the Minister afraid of? If she is convinced it is right, is she saying the people of Ireland are stupid? No, put it to the people and let them make t…
The people of this country are looking on with disbelief. At a time when families are struggling to make ends meet, the Government has approved a pay increase of approximately €118,000 for the CEO of Uisce Éireann, bringing his overall remuneration package to almost €392,000. That is more than €2,270 extra every week. That is a 43% increase. The CEO of ESB received a pay increase of almost €92,000, up 29% to €410,000…
The Taoiseach said that independent bodies outside of the Government made a decision and the Government accepted that in part. Is the Taoiseach saying the Government accepted these increases? The Taoiseach is saying that the other side here is saying we should do nothing. I do not agree with that. Everybody deserves an increase, but an increase of €118,000 a year is outrageous. The people of Ireland deserve accountab…
I support fellow Deputies who have spoken. We do need extra time. We need this to be debated properly. Irish neutrality cannot be thrown out the window. The whole country is upset and concerned about this and I ask the Taoiseach to reconsider this and give the people the extra time they need. That is what we need to do tomorrow.
As Deputy Ward said, I think this budget may have been a missed opportunity. To me, it was a missed opportunity. To Independent Ireland, it was a missed opportunity. We put forward many positions that were different from what would be the usual rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul type of budget, and they were not listened to. It could have been a bold budget that looked after young families and was mainly concerned with young peop…
I will start by extending my sincere sympathies to the English family on the deaths of Philip, Kim, Callum and Jayden in the horrific happenings of last week. I also extend my sincere sympathies to Kim's family who are from Courtmacsherry in my constituency. It opened our eyes to the dangers of drugs, having being brought up in times when drugs were not a huge issue. It shows the crisis it is now. I was listening to …
I am raising a very serious issue that arose in the courts in the last few days. It affects every potato grower in the country. Tailte Éireann won a case meaning that it will now apply rates to sheds to store potatoes.
Worryingly, that could apply to every food grower in Ireland, which would add major costs for the grower and the purchaser in the shops. Can we debate this issue in the Dáil this week?
Excuse me, a Cheann Comhairle. The Deputy is right.
There are people being killed on the roads.
This is a crisis situation for many people. I have said in this Chamber over the last number of weeks, especially since the budget, how 350,000 are in ESB arrears and a large number of families are in mortgage arrears. The Government did not grab that moment last week because it needed a bold budget that stood with the people. It is afraid to stand with the people. It ran along with the same bland old budget. It is t…
I said last night that this budget was a lost opportunity. We needed to get into the cut and thrust of where problems are, and they are with hauliers and agriculture. That bill lands at the table of ordinary mothers and fathers in every city and town in this country because when they go to do their shopping, it is going up and up. I spoke to many of those in the haulage business who have serious concerns. Many of the…
Independent Ireland feels that this budget is a lost opportunity. There is a huge number of issues out there. People are under serious pressure. The Government had an opportunity. It had ample time - this is not happening overnight - to turn this around. This budget is that opportunity, but it is not going to happen. The people want to know what benefit they are going to end up with tomorrow morning, Unfortunately, f…
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. Provision of affordable housing and affordable sites is not happening. We have all seen the local developments in communities where there were affordable sites to help local people who were not able to buy a site and build a house. In my village of Schull, there are 25 houses for which people were able to get a mortgage. That was a help. We need to have more of those…
In relation to the inheritance tax, there is inequality here that is not being address properly. A lot of promises were made or there were a lot soundings to the effect that this would be delivered on. That is not happening. I have listened to people from all sectors of society here in the Dáil. I know people who may have a lot of farm property but who are seriously in debt. That is not taken into account at all. The…
There are rebates in relation to fuel. That took a huge struggle in this country, as we all know. It took people in their thousands hitting the streets and sending a clear message to the Government. Independent Ireland has tried to look at a new model. That was an opportunity for this Government. This budget is very stale; it is more of the same. The Government robs Peter to pay Paul. That is the way it works. That i…
Not at all. Why would we do that? We look across the world and bring it in from across the world. If there is a shortage across the world, we will blame everybody across the world, but nobody wants to talk about what we can deliver, what Barryroe can deliver or what Ireland can deliver in its own backyard. What is going on here is a scandal. There may be a report on it in 20, 30 or 40 years' time.
I look at people a…
There is no doubt that families are under serious pressure from energy costs. Electricity and gas bills remain far too high and hundreds of thousands of households are now in arrears. According to the CRU, over 500,000 energy accounts are in arrears. We now have around 200,000 children in this country living below the poverty line, with this figure rising to some 260,000 children when housing costs are taken into acc…
The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach might indulge me as I would like to pass on my condolences to Treasa, Cillian and Aisling and their family on the loss of Seamus Carroll. Seamus was a lovely usher here in the Dáil. He was friendly, charming and full of fun and was always so very helpful to us all, especially me and my office staff. We will miss him here in Dáil Éireann. May he rest in peace.
Ireland has always been a welcoming country and raising legitimate concerns about immigration does not make somebody anti-immigrant. Independent Ireland supports legal immigration and we recognise the enormous contribution people who come here legally make to our economy, our health services and our communities. However, we also have to be honest about capacity. We have a housing crisis, enormous pressure on our heal…
I attended a meeting in Moate in County Westmeath last weekend with up to 2,000 people. Hauliers, farmers, families and fishermen told us they are in a crisis situation. We have a week before the budget. We need to firmly debate the issues they put before us and asked us to bring to the Dáil to relay the concerns of the crisis they are in. We need to set aside time this week to debate that to make sure we get the bud…