I welcome this opportunity. I remember doing the Leixlip–Ballycoolin water main in 2004 or 2005. An area from Clonee to Navan was supposed to be left for rail. The rail was nearly to come the following day but the position is still the same. Although the posts are up and will soon be rotten, no rail ever came.
In the west, the Claremorris–Athenry line is ferociously important. The Minister of State will remember tha…
TDs / Michael Fitzmaurice
Michael Fitzmaurice
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
429
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
50,404
words spoken in the chamber
Across 171 contributions
293
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
120
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 429 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 171 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 58 | 1 |
| February 2025 | 8 | 22 |
| March 2025 | 17 | 8 |
| April 2025 | 21 | 3 |
| May 2025 | 6 | 8 |
| June 2025 | 36 | 3 |
| July 2025 | 11 | 1 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 21 | 5 |
| October 2025 | 9 | 15 |
| November 2025 | 16 | 7 |
| December 2025 | 16 | 24 |
| January 2026 | 14 | 6 |
| February 2026 | 21 | 22 |
| March 2026 | 45 | 14 |
| April 2026 | 31 | 6 |
| May 2026 | 15 | 1 |
| June 2026 | 34 | 0 |
| July 2026 | 31 | 7 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 13 | 3 |
| October 2026 | 6 | 15 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 79 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 Roscommon-Galway 29 November 2024 to now
- party Independent Ireland 29 November 2024 to now
I move:
That Dáil Éireann:
acknowledges that:
— the persistent shortfall in the delivery of housing, particularly social, affordable, and cost-rental units, constitutes a structural failure of public policy;
— successive Governments have fallen short of their own housing delivery targets, and a significant proportion of zoned, developable land remains idle due to systemic delays in planning, infrastructure alignm…
I thank Mark Nolan and John Campbell for helping us out. I thank each of the speakers, whether they spoke for or against the motion. I thank them for spending the time. I will address a few of the issues raised by the Minister. Three years ago I came into the Dáil and today RTÉ is reporting that we are now in trouble. To build a house, a site has to be dug out. Stone and concrete are needed. It is damning that three …
The Minister spoke about different reports and bodies being set up and whatever. The bottom line is that if people do their job and are given the utilities, instruments and simplifications, everyone could do their jobs without putting layers upon layers. All we are doing, if we get a housing tsar or whatever, is getting another person to blame. We will say they should have done their job. At the end of the day, if ev…
The clock is going.
The Tánaiste is well aware that a few months ago, at the end of January, there was a devastating storm in the west midlands and the north west. In fairness, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, are well familiar with the devastation that has been caused. I know the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, has had meetings with the different communications outfits.
Four months later,…
I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I know a small bit about civil engineering work, and it will be a miracle. The photo I sent was taken this morning. If all the infrastructure will be in place by 3 June, with Monday a bank holiday, I would be amazed. I hope the Tánaiste is right and that what Eir told the Government is correct but I do not think it will come true. I ask the Government to keep the pressure on. For a…
The fire burned a heap of forestry. The Government knows as well as I do that, after 20 years, it is not insured and these people are left high and dry. All that can be done is to woodchip it. That is all that is left.
They need help to replant. The Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, spoke about the reconstitution grant for wind-blown timber. I ask for those people to be included to give them a small token of help.
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I appreciate that the Minister is supporting it.
The means test for carers is mentioned in the programme for Government. I have seen many cases where people's sons or daughters went from the west to Dublin or wherever else and when they came home to mind their parents they were not allowed to get the carer's grant because they had a house in Dublin, for example. The…
If I could have just one second. They might lease the land, and if they do, they are in trouble.
Could the Minister look at this because it is ferociously important to help the situation?
The Taoiseach has spoken about building 300,000 houses over the next few years and I wish him luck in that. The facts are at the moment that 85% of the towns of Ireland do not have capacity to provide extra water for new housing. We know the budget that Irish Water is working with. Its ten-year plan is to bring the network up to specification under EU regulations and is based on approximately 30,000 houses per year. …
The facts are that of the €10 billion that is proposed, €5 billion is to comply with EU legislation. It is to bring plants that are not compliant at the moment into compliance. Another €3 billion of it is for the Shannon project. What the Government is saying, then, is that the Government has €2 billion over five years to produce an additional 30,000 houses every year. To be quite frank about it, whoever did those fi…
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. We need to learn many lessons from Storm Éowyn. We can blame and give out, but we need to be prepared for the next one and do a post mortem on what needs to be improved. In fairness, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, has been helpful whenever I have gone to him. I would say his Department has no closing date in its letters. You need flexibility for all people because th…
4. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if the bachelor of veterinary medicine will be delivered in Atlantic Technological University, formerly Mountbellew Agricultural College, Galway, in September 2025, as announced by his predecessor; if not, when this course will commence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14918/25]
First, I want to wish the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, well as I did not formally do it. For a number of years, I have lobbied about veterinary colleges and I welcome the announcement where Letterkenny and Mountbellew was going to be one of them and Carlow-Kilkenny and Waterford was going to be the other.
My understanding was this was going to kick off in September 2025. I have heard it could b…
There are probably 200 youngsters out of the country at the moment because UCD is not fit to take the numbers who are looking for this. I understand that there is a lot of setting up to it, but the problem is, as the Minister knows in his position, that a delay of three or four months does not work in veterinary or in college because if it is not ready for September 2025, it will not start until September 2026. I kno…
I thank the Minister for his reply. I will follow the matter up with him as the months go by.
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. On security, there are many headwinds blowing at present in respect of the Mercosur deal. Irish farmers would be unduly affected by this deal and I urge the Government to oppose it.
On tariffs, while it will be Europe that will decide the number and type of products that will attract tariffs, we must remember that the 60% of, for example, distillers' grain that come…
I welcome the debate and support the motion. When we hear the Department of Finance talking about it costing a certain amount if we were to get rid of the means test, if these carers decided to look at putting their loved ones into a nursing home, it would cost the State €1,100 every week. Those are the facts of it. They are actually saving the State about €800 to €900 every week. I have been in the House for ten or …
To correct the record, we went in to meet the Taoiseach and Tánaiste and put a policy document in front of them. When we talked about trying to save the agricultural sector from a carbon tax, others decided to sign up to it. We talked about freezing it and perhaps putting it on aeroplane travel. People can decide whether to go on holidays but cannot decide whether to go to work 30 or 40 miles from where they live. Ot…
They signed up for the jobs.
I wish both the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, the best of luck in their new portfolios.
The first thing is that I think everyone is in agreement with Croí Cónaithe. It is a good thing and is getting more houses done. I think the cabin at the back of the house is a good thing. I would like if it was 200 sq. ft bigger, the same size as the modular homes, but if anything is good let us s…
I wish the Minister well in her new portfolio. She will be well aware that over the last few weeks the people of the west, the north west and the midlands have suffered fair torture with the storm. In the context of legislation relating to the Department of the environment at the moment, many contractors went to help the likes of the ESB and the councils to get trees off roads and all of that type of work. Those cont…