1. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the measures he is taking to ensure that small- and medium-sized businesses can access affordable credit and avoid being burdened with high borrowing costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51024/25]
TDs / Rose Conway-Walsh
Rose Conway-Walsh
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518
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
94,087
words spoken in the chamber
Across 490 contributions
377
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
169
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 518 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 490 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 5 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 27 | 33 |
| March 2025 | 37 | 24 |
| April 2025 | 24 | 30 |
| May 2025 | 83 | 30 |
| June 2025 | 31 | 18 |
| July 2025 | 41 | 14 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 14 | 19 |
| October 2025 | 12 | 17 |
| November 2025 | 36 | 58 |
| December 2025 | 20 | 34 |
| January 2026 | 13 | 35 |
| February 2026 | 33 | 28 |
| March 2026 | 18 | 14 |
| April 2026 | 28 | 35 |
| May 2026 | 23 | 24 |
| June 2026 | 16 | 20 |
| July 2026 | 34 | 15 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 10 | 27 |
| October 2026 | 13 | 15 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 330 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 Mayo 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
Will the Minister outline the measures he is taking to ensure small- and medium-sized businesses can access affordable credit and avoid being burdened with high borrowing costs? Access to affordable credit is a significant barrier to our SMEs that want to expand and grow their market share. As they try to navigate their way around all of the challenges they face, they need access to credit.
I welcome these initiatives but last year, in 2024, we saw no real growth in Ireland's SME bank debt, with continued low demand from applicants and an overly cautious approach to risk from the banks. SMEs with any form of credit challenge find it difficult to access credit from the traditional financial institutions, even more so since the departure of Ulster Bank and KBC from the market. These are the sources where …
I welcome this. The problem sometimes is that many of these systems are automated and somebody may not have an absolutely clear record. There can be many reasons for this which are explainable, and at one time people could have gone in and sat down with the bank manager to explain the reason something happened and they could come to an agreement. This was also the case for people with good creditworthiness. This is s…
3. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the means by which existing grant and support schemes are being simplified to make them more accessible to small and medium businesses; the steps his Department is taking to cut unnecessary red tape and reduce the administrative burden on small businesses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51025/25]
The previous question is a very important one. Will the Minister outline the means by which the Department is simplifying access to existing grant and support schemes for our SMEs and the steps he is taking to reduce the administrative burden for those businesses? The administrative burden on small and medium-sized enterprises is a major impediment for business owners around the country at the moment, sucking vital r…
The issue is that we still have too many people coming into our constituency offices who cannot get the help and support they need to access grants. I hope that any grants announced in the budget will be thought out properly. The way to do that as regards the design of the grants is to have small businesses involved at the design stage of these grants because they will be able to see what impediments may arise that w…
Will the Minister think about this? In Sinn Féin's manifesto and over a number of years, we have envisaged the establishment of a mol gnó, a new Irish enterprise agency focused specifically on scaling existing Irish businesses. This would be a strong agency for non-export focused start-ups and established companies. It would specifically cover the void in support from existing agencies like Enterprise Ireland and the…
5. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment when the action plan on collective bargaining will be published; the timeline for publication of the underpinning legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51026/25]
My question relates to the publication of the action plan on collective bargaining that underpins the EU directive on an adequate minimum wage. When will we see the contents of this plan? What is the timeline for the delivery of the legislation underpinning that?
There is a commitment in the programme for Government to finalise this action plan by the end of 2025. It will be October next week and the Minister is run…
This is absolutely critical because we are at a juncture regarding how we will shape our economy going forward. We cannot have an economy without workers. We need to stop viewing it as workers versus employers because the benefits of collective bargaining are huge. I commend the campaign in this regard which is being run by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, in particular, and the presentation yesterday in the audio…
Six of the top ten FDI companies enable union representation. We know for a fact that it increases respect for management. It increases as union recognition increases. We need to take heed of the good jobs Bill in the North as well, because that is really making inroads in this area in terms of union recognition. As a party, Sinn Féin has long stood in support of trade union recognition and the fundamental right of w…
No child in Ireland in 2025 should grow up without a home or without hope for the future. If this Government runs its full term, every single child in Ireland will have been born and grown up under a Fine Gael Government. Thousands of those who are children now are going to look back in the years ahead and ask why did this happen and why did they have to grow up in these circumstances.
Those on the Government benche…
Up and down the country, but especially in rural areas, the inflexibility and lack of common sense of the Department and Bus Éireann constitute a real issue. I will ask the Minister of State two questions before I outline a case for him. Why is there separate vetting in every Bus Éireann office for drivers? I am thinking of where someone crosses over the Galway border from Mayo. Drivers often have to get up to ten se…
It is beyond time that we end the rip-off of energy bills facing every household and business up and down the country already on their knees with the cost-of-living crisis. More energy increases come at a time when we are already paying the highest levels of energy prices in Europe. That is a badge of dishonour for this Government. How many homes are going to be cold tonight as people try to hold out and not turn on …
I welcome the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. However, the Minister and I know that the road from here to Mayo is paved with good intentions and unimplemented strategies, many of which have been outlined here. The subsequent action plan and its implementation will be the test of whether the strategy will bring about genuine change or is just another collection of words.
The fact is that…
If there was ever an example of a do-nothing Government, it is when it comes to dental care. I want to read out a letter from somebody in County Mayo:
I’m writing to you as a desperate mother from Mayo. For the past five years, my family has been unable to access any dental care through the medical card in our area.
No one is accepting new patients, and despite endless phone calls, pleading, and searching, we’ve hi…
I appreciate that the Bill before us will provide for revisions to corporate governance arrangements within the HSE. I welcome this. If ever an agency needed governance reforms, it was the HSE. There have been too many incidents of governance failures at this agency. I refer to the CervicalCheck scandal, which revealed 162 women were not informed about missed abnormalities in their smear tests; the 2023 nursing home …
The INMO is telling untruths, then. It is telling untruths, as it says there are not safe staffing levels. You can hold up whatever documents you like, Minister.
The Minister can hold up whatever document she likes, but I am telling her that there are not enough staff in Mayo University Hospital in the emergency department section to provide safe service there. I am also telling the Minister that it is a deterrent for so many people who want to, and probably need to, go to hospital. They want to do everything to stay out of hospital. Those nurses and other staff members are a…
I am sorry but the Minister needs to get with the programme.
I welcome the establishment of the commission of investigation, which, unfortunately, is long overdue. The reality is that we will never know how many victims are not alive to see this day. Louise O'Keeffe had to fight tooth and nail to hold the State to account for the abuse she suffered. This Government and its predecessors have known for decades of the horrendous abuse endured by children who should have been in a…
Hear, hear.
Hear, hear.
The Minister's response is not good enough. It is as plain and simple as that. She should hear the stories of all the women in the Gallery. I am proud of my party colleagues, particularly Senator McCormack and my party president, Deputy McDonald, for bringing this motion before the House. It would never be brought to the House by the Government.
Since the beginning of the Sinn Féin campaign to achieve adequate endom…