What really shocked me when I met Macra na Feirme was seeing that the numbers backed up what we were seeing on the ground. It really is important that we encourage young people to stick with the family farm. Part of that is that they need to see a future in it so that they know they will be able to take it over and invest in it for the future. What I am proposing here cannot simply be viewed as a retirement scheme fo…
TDs / Albert Dolan
Albert Dolan
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,557
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
45,779
words spoken in the chamber
Across 211 contributions
416
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
209
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 1,557 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 211 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 3 | 7 |
| February 2025 | 85 | 6 |
| March 2025 | 68 | 5 |
| April 2025 | 49 | 3 |
| May 2025 | 132 | 17 |
| June 2025 | 125 | 16 |
| July 2025 | 149 | 5 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 100 | 13 |
| October 2025 | 97 | 6 |
| November 2025 | 138 | 11 |
| December 2025 | 53 | 14 |
| January 2026 | 71 | 16 |
| February 2026 | 38 | 14 |
| March 2026 | 92 | 12 |
| April 2026 | 55 | 10 |
| May 2026 | 65 | 11 |
| June 2026 | 131 | 15 |
| July 2026 | 51 | 0 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 21 | 20 |
| October 2026 | 34 | 10 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 157 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 Galway East 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
7. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on justice, migration and social affairs will meet next. [64288/26]
A huge amount of work has been done by An Garda Síochána to recruit new members. Understandably, after each attestation, the gardaí are allocated to different stations right across the country. My huge problem with that is that in the last three attestations, Galway received, in total across the over 700 gardaí that were allocated, only four gardaí. That is not four gardaí for one town in Galway or one small village;…
They were repatriated outside Galway.
For the city.
The Tánaiste will be well aware of the case of Carrabane National School in east Galway. I have no doubt that multiple representations have been made to him about it. While I do not expect him to have an answer today as to what the case is, I want to highlight the frustration that exists among the school community. Two months ago, I and all of the other public representatives in east Galway attended a public meeting …
36. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the revised national digital and AI strategy. [45331/26]
142. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment if he is exploring new measures to assist with the cost of doing business; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45347/26]
Essentially, what I am asking about is the cost of doing business. With rates, insurance, electricity and labour costs, the costs of doing business over the past few years have soared and while the Government has, at times, tried to intervene and support people, I want to know what plans the Minister has to further support businesses?
Go raibh maith agat a Aire Stáit. I appreciate the update and the work that is ongoing. A key area I want to highlight, and I know the Minister of State is hearing this regularly, is energy costs. Energy remains one of the largest overheads for SMEs, particular in the hospitality sector, the manufacturing sector and the agribusiness sector. Small businesses do not have the same purchasing power that larger entities o…
The Government has to go further, in particular for small and medium enterprises that do not have the scale to acquire electricity at a discounted rate. This is who we have to consider and support.
I want to move on to another cost of business issue which is constantly coming up for me, in particular in recent weeks. It is with regard to rates. Commercial rates are increasingly becoming a frustration for businesses.…
Artificial intelligence, AI, is one of the biggest economic opportunities facing Ireland over the next decade. It has the potential to transform productivity, innovation and competitiveness across every sector. What is the Government doing to position Ireland as a leader in AI adoption and development?
I am firmly of the opinion that the countries that adopt AI responsibly will yield the greatest benefits over the next generation. We can be economic leaders through AI and we can show what a society is capable of. A part of where this conversation has to be is about the societal benefits that can come from AI-gained efficiencies.
With those efficiencies, however, come a lot of concerns. We have to address the chall…
I would say that we need to be careful. I welcome the Grow Digital vouchers, but this would lead to businesses depending on those vouchers to get the expertise and skills to be talented with AI. The whole idea of AI is that it is going to be usable by anybody for anybody with their own critical thinking and their own ability. It is going to be about allowing people to gain the skillsets and the critical thinking capa…
FDI decisions are going to be driven by talent, innovation and, ultimately, infrastructure. When I say infrastructure, I am talking about public transport, housing and everything that goes into the quality of life of the employee because, ultimately, companies are going to locate where the talent wants to be.
In Galway, as I have mentioned previously, we have a significant medtech sector. It is absolutely incredible…
I welcome the Minister of State's mention of the next-generation sites. As he knows, outside Oranmore there is potential for one of the country's most strategic sites. It was reported in the Business Post over a year ago that the Minister, Deputy Burke, was to bring a memo to the Cabinet about potential investment in Galway to upgrade the infrastructure on Mutton Island and wastewater infrastructure, and to provide a…
This is something that I am very passionate about. It is something that affects us all. It is about financial literacy: understanding how a mortgage works, understanding how contributions to a pension can compound, understanding how people can better manage their own financial situations individually and, ultimately, understanding how people can make the best possible lives for themselves. That comes back to financia…
I really appreciate the Minister of State's engagement on this issue. I welcome the response from the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the financial literacy framework and directive that are in place. I know about that because I experienced it when I was in secondary school. I was really interested in commerce, economics and accounting and I went on to study accounting. I took those three subjects and did not do any sc…
I am going to start off addressing the short-term lets. As the Minister knows, I am a member of the enterprise committee where we have been considering the legislation and considering the conversations around it. One of the main things that consistently comes across from people in the industry is that they are not really concerned with the register as such. However, they are very concerned with the implications that …
I welcome the progression of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill. I am pleased the Government is now bringing forward legislation that reflects Ireland's long-held position on this issue. Ireland has consistently stood on the side of international law, human rights and the pursuit of peace. We have been among the strongest voices internationally in …
13. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation Digitisation if he will consider instructing Departments and bodies under his remit to include an additional column in their published purchase order reports to indicate the specific contract under which each payment is made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40546/26]
Will the Minister consider instructing Departments and bodies under his remit to include an additional column in their published purchase order reports to indicate the specific contract under which each payment is made? From a purchase order report, I can see who was paid, how much they were paid and when they were paid but I cannot see what they were paid for. The only way we can do that is by linking it back to the…
I thank the Minister for his work in writing to all the State bodies to remind them of their obligation under the EU open data directive that they have to publish their purchase orders in machine-readable format. To give the Minister an example, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, the children's hospital and the Arts Council were not publishing but once he wrote to them, this ensured that they did start publishing…
The Office of Government Procurement stopped centrally collecting procurement spend data in 2019 citing general data protection regulation, GDPR, concerns and six years later, nothing has replaced it. The Department is estimating its procurement spend using estimated tender values on eTenders, not actual expenditure data. I believe this is a structural governance problem and a very practical step is adding one additi…
An adult travelling daily from Athenry to Galway city currently pays approximately €5.10 each way by rail, despite the journey taking only around 20 minutes and the route increasingly functioning as a major commuter corridor for workers and students travelling into Galway. Meanwhile, a commuter travelling from Clonsilla to Connolly Station in Dublin, a journey of approximately 28 minutes, can travel for roughly €2.60…