The oil companies will put it up again.
TDs / Timmy Dooley
Timmy Dooley
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
102
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
78,869
words spoken in the chamber
73,967 as a minister, 4,902 as a TD
290
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
33
topics asked about
Across 15 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 102 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 266 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 1 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 75 | 12 |
| March 2025 | 2 | 1 |
| April 2025 | 3 | 5 |
| May 2025 | 0 | 14 |
| June 2025 | 0 | 3 |
| July 2025 | 0 | 9 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 | 31 |
| October 2025 | 0 | 12 |
| November 2025 | 0 | 2 |
| December 2025 | 0 | 27 |
| January 2026 | 2 | 24 |
| February 2026 | 5 | 24 |
| March 2026 | 4 | 10 |
| April 2026 | 5 | 30 |
| May 2026 | 2 | 16 |
| June 2026 | 3 | 22 |
| July 2026 | 0 | 5 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 0 | 11 |
| October 2026 | 0 | 7 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 168 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 Clare 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications 25 February 2025 to 1 June 2025
- office Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment 2 June 2025 to now
I thank the Minister, Deputy Heydon, for his continued support and the full stretch of his Department, in particular, in the area of marine and fisheries.
As the Minister indicated, the most significant element of the reduction in fishing quotas for 2026 is the reduction in the mackerel quota. It has had a very significant impact, not just on the catching sector but also on the processing sector because we control s…
I genuinely thank everybody who participated in the debate today. There will be differences between us politically and some will seek to make political points. I fully understand; I know how that works but they are here because they care about the various communities they represent which, some greater than others, have a stake in the fishing industry. There are other counties that do not. We even had Deputy Maxwell w…
We could be here a long time if we got into that. They were ahead of the game in establishing their fishing rights and they were grandfathered in to the agreements that came. We are working off the back foot. When we joined the European Union our sector was very small and underdeveloped. It has done well. Some really great ingenuity went into it around the coastline in particular the pelagics and in other areas. They…
They might learn something. If they stay quiet they might learn the complex issue.
I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.
The Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, and I cut our teeth in student politics 35 years ago. I learned a lesson back then and it is equally worthy today. Never be speaking after him, because you will certainly not outdo his capacity to hold an audience and hold people to account. I do not bear any ill will against Sinn Féin for taking an opportunity like this. Maybe we have all done it in opposition.
I grew up on a small farm in the west of Ireland. I know what survival is like. I know what difficulties and issues faced a farming community.
I do not mean this in any kind of an over-the-top way, but I do not need anyone in this House, from this side or the other, to lecture me about the struggles farming is facing.
Also, over that protracted period of time, I have come to see how successive governments have supported the farming sector and how it is a different place now from what it was 40, 45 or 50 years ago. I also know there is a much different approach now to marketing our beef abroad and that the integrated nature of the supply chain and the complexities of it are very different from the kind of abattoirs, the kind of but…
-----how the requirements of the customer are very different-----
-----and the way in which markets are provided for.
That is for another day, however. It is not for us.
I would expect that tomorrow, when he comes before the committee-----
-----Mr. Murrin will be well able to explain the complexities of the supply chain-----
-----and the complexities of meeting the demands and needs of a changing marketplace. It is not all about carcasses moving to and fro.
We have heard about the remarkable growth in the value of agrifood exports over the last decade and more from an export value of €10 billion in 2011 to an estimated €21 billion in 2025. That figure is a truly a record. Our export destinations are well balanced between the EU, the UK …
Farmers talk to me regularly about the exactness and complexity of these standards and the challenges they present. If the people at the top of Bord Bia were to exit, those very standards would be questioned in third countries, markets outside of Ireland.
While we might think we would have a handle on this debate and know what was going on, we do not know how it would be translated-----
-----by some of our competitors. Can the Deputies imagine how the delivery of a head, as Sinn Féin has been demanding of the Minister, Deputy Heydon, would be presented by those countries that seek to compete with us in international markets? They would say there was a problem with Irish beef and with the standards.
They would say there was a problem with the agency.
They would undermine us. That would open up an entirely new front.
I suspect that, within a number of weeks, we would have another motion from Sinn Féin, this one saying the Minister did wrong and hanged the wrong man and telling him to look at the negative consequences. It is sometimes easy to call for a head and to rush to judgment.
However, when you have the privilege, responsibility and burden of government, you always have to think things through.
You have to make sure the decisions that you take on behalf of the Irish people-----
-----are in the best interests of the people we seek to serve. I cannot accept that Sinn Féin holds dear farmers and those communities any more than I do or the other people on this side of the House do.