I thought the Minister was going to be a bit humble, believe the women and be a bit respectful. Instead, she stands up with this nonsense.
TDs / Pearse Doherty
Pearse Doherty
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1,436
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
224,644
words spoken in the chamber
Across 1,657 contributions
378
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
236
topics asked about
Across 20 departments
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
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Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Questions asked 1,436 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 1,657 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 10 | 20 |
| February 2025 | 135 | 57 |
| March 2025 | 93 | 120 |
| April 2025 | 59 | 72 |
| May 2025 | 117 | 111 |
| June 2025 | 79 | 75 |
| July 2025 | 132 | 106 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 89 | 38 |
| October 2025 | 75 | 81 |
| November 2025 | 79 | 163 |
| December 2025 | 51 | 102 |
| January 2026 | 64 | 37 |
| February 2026 | 72 | 98 |
| March 2026 | 53 | 95 |
| April 2026 | 64 | 140 |
| May 2026 | 78 | 75 |
| June 2026 | 67 | 102 |
| July 2026 | 60 | 16 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 2 |
| September 2026 | 39 | 90 |
| October 2026 | 20 | 56 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 1,142 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 Donegal 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
91. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance to outline the level of investment by the State in Israeli bonds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39745/25]
My first question is about Israeli war bonds. The Minister will know that we had Private Members' business about this before. We learned yesterday that the State continued to invest in Israeli war bonds right through the genocide. As our screens were lighting up with men, women and children being slaughtered by Israel, the State still held investments during that genocide. I would like to know how those investments i…
I find this absolutely outrageous. What did the Minister do in this period? Did he know that the Irish State, using Irish taxpayers' money, was funding a genocide? Israel does not hide behind this. It does not blush about this. It sells and advertises these bonds as supporting the war effort. We all know that it is not a war. We know it is genocide. Before this, regarding the Central Bank's role, one could say that t…
Exactly. We were asking the Minister how much money ISIF had in war bonds, how much money it was putting on the table and how much money was being invested in the bombs and bullets that were slaughtering children right before our eyes. Children who were queueing up for water were being slaughtered and this State invested money in it. You cannot wash your hands of this. You are the bloody Minister for Finance and an o…
They are war bonds.
93. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to reports that there are mortgage prisoners with vulture funds that have seen no reduction in their interest rates despite eight consecutive interest rate reductions by the ECB; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39746/25]
I have been dealing with people throughout the State who are mortgage prisoners of vulture funds. They have seen huge interest rates being charged on their mortgages. The ECB has reduced mortgage rates on eight consecutive occasions but there seems to be no let up for those who are mortgage prisoners, and there are almost 100,000 of them. These are mortgages that are now with vulture funds. They are not reducing thei…
This is an issue I have raised with the Minister numerous times. Along with the former Minister, Michael McGrath, he was a cheerleader for the selling off of these loans to the vulture funds. He obstructed and blocked a Bill that would have prevented it from happening. All of these individuals are now paying more interest than they would be if they were with a main-street lender, even for performing loans. I would li…
The Minister made the point that he voted against or obstructed the passage of my Bill because he thought it was not in the Government's interest. He is 100% right. He took the side of the banks and the vulture funds. It was not in their interest for that Bill to go through. I will tell the Minister whose interest the Bill was in. It was in the interest of the woman who spoke to me who is charged 6.5% by Mars Capital…
Yes, it is.
Was it right for those people?
Was it right for those people?
Was it right for the person who is being charged 7%?
95. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the steps he is taking to address the increased cost of insurance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39747/25]
I have raised this issue with the Minister time and time again and I will continue raising it because people are, to use that phrase again, being ripped off. There is no doubt about it. It is not good enough that the Government is doing nothing about it. Insurance companies are boasting profit margins far and above the European average, far and above what they said they would target if they got the reforms that were …
The response of the Minister of State is disappointing. Until the problem is diagnosed, we are not going to get a solution. I have said this before. It is not just the Minister of State. It must be the Department because his predecessors have done the same thing. That is cheerleading for the industry. The industry is making profits that are way above the norm. Motor insurance is up 10% since the start of the year. Ou…
The Minister of State can splice and dice this any way. Everybody out there knows the cost of insurance is going up. The alliance is saying it. The reforms have been pocketed by the industry. Let us look at Liberty Insurance. Its profits are at 13%. This industry came before the House of the Oireachtas. It begged us to do the reforms. We put it to insurance companies and asked what they would target and whether they …
How come they are earning more than twice what they told us they would target if we brought in the reforms? The reason is that they have pocketed all the reforms-----
-----pushed up the premiums and the Government is doing nothing but cheerleading in its speaking notes.
I ask the Minister to square the circle. When he said he rejects the notion that Ireland was funding or complicit in the funding of the genocide, given that these were advertised as war bonds to support the war effort in what we all in this House call not a war but a genocide, does the Minister not acknowledge there was hard cash and profiteering done on the back of the genocide?
The second issue is the Minister sta…
What analysis, if any, has been carried out by the Minister or his Department in relation to the dividends forgone as a result of the State selling its shares in the AIB since 2022? As the Minister knows, I argued against the sale of those shareholdings in which at one point in time we had 71% of the shares. What dividend are we losing as a result of the fact that we now do not hold shares that bank?
There is no doubt that we will not benefit from hundreds of millions of euro in dividends each year. The Minister can make the point of €273 million of a dividend last year on the basis of a 19% shareholding. Obviously, if we had the 71% that would be significantly increased in a year where the bank paid out close to a billion euro on dividends. This was one of the most financially reckless decisions that have been m…
It is not just the Minister who is at a loss. The taxpayer is at a loss because of his decision. The reality is, and I asked whether his Department did any analysis of this, one of the major issues in terms of share price is the profitability of a bank or of a company.
We can see the profitability of AIB and Bank of Ireland. The bank was nationalised at a time when it was making losses and was sold privately at a ti…
We did not. Is the Minister joking me?