What incentives will the Minister provide for public sector workers because of the acute shortages we are seeing? Some 382 roles in the national children's hospital are unfilled. There are 700 vacancies for psychiatric nurses. There are 529 unfilled posts throughout the children's disability network teams, CDNTs. Some 500 new social workers are required per year. Some 75% of secondary schools are unable to fill teach…
TDs / Ruth Coppinger
Ruth Coppinger
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
938
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
164,714
words spoken in the chamber
Across 1,017 contributions
371
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
239
topics asked about
Across 19 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 938 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 1,017 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 5 |
| January 2025 | 4 | 2 |
| February 2025 | 40 | 62 |
| March 2025 | 32 | 55 |
| April 2025 | 59 | 51 |
| May 2025 | 42 | 68 |
| June 2025 | 33 | 69 |
| July 2025 | 48 | 63 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 81 | 26 |
| October 2025 | 26 | 79 |
| November 2025 | 81 | 42 |
| December 2025 | 16 | 58 |
| January 2026 | 64 | 66 |
| February 2026 | 64 | 99 |
| March 2026 | 66 | 46 |
| April 2026 | 79 | 48 |
| May 2026 | 53 | 50 |
| June 2026 | 51 | 60 |
| July 2026 | 26 | 32 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| September 2026 | 53 | 20 |
| October 2026 | 20 | 15 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 687 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 Dublin West 29 November 2024 to now
- party People Before Profit-Solidarity 29 November 2024 to now
In our mutual constituency, the resounding message at the doors is that young Castleknock is in Australia. That was said to me. I was told I would not meet anyone over the age of 23 in the area.
The Mayor of London estimates that a worker needs £9,600 extra to live in inner London. There is a London weighting allowance, for example, for the NHS, whereby a worker in inner London is paid 20%, or up to £8,172, more. An…
In other words, the Government is not going to do anything. That is the reality. It is going to stick by these collective agreements that do not serve all groups of workers. I will give the examples of the Tories, who I would not be singing the praises of at any time. Due to the teaching crisis in the UK, a scheme was introduced to make bursaries available. To teach chemistry, for example, a prospective teacher will …
This is a very important issue. It is about treating workers in a humanitarian way. We have a huge number of healthcare assistants, mainly working in private nursing homes, who the State brought here on special work permits because it could not find the labour in this country. These people are mainly women and mainly nurses. They are fully qualified nurses who work, if you like, below the level of their qualification…
I am surprised to hear the review is still under way. People have made submissions. Unite trade union is now organising these workers. This is very positive because migrant workers have not traditionally been able to participate in the trade union movement. It is very difficult and scary for somebody working in a private nursing home to put their head above the parapet. These workers staged a demonstration at the Dái…
People often speculate about what they would have done in Nazi Germany or in the 1930s. The answer is that whatever you are doing now is what you would have done then. The Minister of State is in government and has power. I thank the Labour Party for moving this motion. I do not agree with every word it contains, however. There is no global community. That has been utterly exposed. Imperialism has been laid absolutel…
I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."
Babies are dying.
People are dying.
I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 to ban the hunting of a fox or foxes; and to provide for related matters.
I understand we have an unprecedented situation where a Deputy will be opposing this Bill, but I will come back to it later. With fox hunting banned in England, Scotland and Wales, Ireland has become an outlier. In fact, it is iro…
So much for freedom of speech.
4. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach to report on his recent engagement with the US President. [25532/25]
7. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach to report on his recent engagement with the US President. [26853/25]
The US President and regime are facilitating the carnage that is happening in Gaza. They facilitated it by opening up the prospect of Gaza becoming a tourist place but its Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is also facilitating the starvation of people. Food distribution is being used to kettle Palestinians when they gather at a food place. The director of that operation has resigned. This is US-led. The latest is that a s…
It will be too late.
We are big traders with Israel.
12. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on the economy, trade and competitiveness will next meet. [21096/25]
The overriding need in our society and in our economy is for housing. The Central Bank's director of financial stability has said 50,000 homes have to be built every year for the next ten years in order to fulfil the need. The targets the Government itself has set go nowhere near this. They are in the 30s of the thousands. Will the Taoiseach accept that the market cannot deliver the scale of this? This has to be led …
What about the councils?
There are not enough private companies to build those houses.
We have seen it all at this stage. We have had unnecessary hip operations, unlicensed springs implanted into children, defective technology being a fixture in operations and we have had Wi-Fi issues. There is something new every week. Now, we have a doctor who, allegedly, referred public patients to their private clinic at the weekend and was paid money by the National Treatment Purchase Fund. This fund is meant to b…
I do not have time to make all the points I wanted regarding the research. I just want to say what the parents believe needs to be done at this stage. The HSE was proposing a two-stage review, by the CHI first and then by outsiders. That has been completely rejected. They are putting forward the idea of a partial ratified independent scrutiny mechanism, PRISM, as it is called, where the parents themselves would have …
I am finding it hard to see how we are still here when thousands of babies died in Gaza last night while food trucks with baby formula and baby food were sitting nearby. Netanyahu has issued evacuation orders to annihilate Gaza, and his finance minister has said, "the world still hasn't stopped us". He is right. I do not want to hear about how the Government is the best in the class, because all of the others are so …
Hypocrisy, in other words.
We are 19 months on and there is nothing.