I welcome the defective concrete blocks social scheme 2026. This is the first opportunity for those who have been living in affected council houses in recent years. They did not have an opportunity to have remedial works carried out to their houses, so it is a welcome development.
Officials from my county and other counties met the Minister's officials and members of the council in recent months. It is obvious that …
TDs / Pat the Cope Gallagher
Pat the Cope Gallagher
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
117
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
16,685
words spoken in the chamber
Across 59 contributions
369
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
57
topics asked about
Across 16 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 117 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 59 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 1 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 1 | 1 |
| March 2025 | 8 | 6 |
| April 2025 | 5 | 0 |
| May 2025 | 3 | 3 |
| June 2025 | 6 | 4 |
| July 2025 | 16 | 13 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 7 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 9 | 7 |
| November 2025 | 9 | 4 |
| December 2025 | 10 | 3 |
| January 2026 | 4 | 0 |
| February 2026 | 4 | 4 |
| March 2026 | 5 | 4 |
| April 2026 | 5 | 2 |
| May 2026 | 4 | 3 |
| June 2026 | 7 | 4 |
| July 2026 | 6 | 0 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 1 | 1 |
| October 2026 | 6 | 0 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 44 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 Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting my Topical Issue. I did not think last time I raised this matter in the House that I would have to come back again. It is not one of the major problems in the Department, which has more to deal with. However, whether it is the Department, the Minister of State or the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, they are unable to resolve this. I will make the charge immediately …
I am disappointed to learn that a business case has to be made to open Burtonport for a few hours. When looking at the map of Donegal, there is no designated port from Greencastle to Killybegs where fishermen can land on Saturdays. It is putting people's lives of risks and depriving them of accessing the Chinese market. It makes no sense at all. It makes no sense to have Burtonport linked to Greencastle, which is an …
I sincerely hope that I will not have to come into this House again to make the case.
I thank the Minister of State.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise this important issue. My colleague Deputy Doherty has outlined how it is affecting two families in Donegal. The European Medicines Agency has approved this drug for DMD last year. Now, together with, I am sure, all colleagues in the House, I am anxious that the Department would exert pressure on the HSE to make this drug available to these children. An example of the succ…
What is difficult to understand is that givinostat is available in most EU countries. Whatever is going to be decided now must be fast-tracked. The Minister of State referred to the receipt of a commercial offer on Friday, 8 May. In the next few weeks, a decision must be taken. The ironic thing about this is that Aaron's family lives in Laghy, close to the Border and the O'Sullivan family lives in Ballybofey, close t…
Sorry Chair, time is ticking. It is an important issue.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the issue of side-by-side housing within the defective concrete blocks remediation scheme, particularly in light of where we now stand with the legislation having been progressed. We had amendments towards the end of last year. We had regulations on the increase from €420,000 to €462,000 and the extension of time to 130 weeks but, lo and behold, there were no regulation…
I thank the Minister for the response but all that is new in it is that the regulations are in the final stages of drafting and will be available to the Minister to sign within the next couple of weeks. Back in committee last year, I was told completion would be in quarter 1, but it is now quarter 2. I was told completion would be in the middle of April. This is not what my constituents want to hear. I want something…
I want to again raise the issue of Aer Lingus taking a unilateral decision to insist that those travelling from the Republic to mainland Great Britain must have a passport. This is creating all sorts of problems for Irish people. There is a presumption that everybody has a passport. I know many people in my county who do not have passports but travel to the UK regularly. To take a practical example, if some of those …
It is not the UK; it is Aer Lingus.
And people in Cork.
There are practical reasons.
I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on the fishing sector. As we debate this today we look at the state of the fishing sector in Ireland due to the policies of various EU Commissions since Brexit. As a result of the Brexit deal, we lost 26% of the value of our quotas overnight in December 2020. For that we cannot point a finger at the Commission in total, but I can point a finger at former Commissi…
-----who told me many times that they did not want to exceed the quotas because then they were selling black fish, which brings down the price of the others. They are honourable people who get very little funding from the State when they go out to buy their boats and provide employment. It is so sad to look at the ports where I worked and processed fish. I processed fish in ports from Clogherhead to Dunmore East to C…
Is the Taoiseach aware of the requirement that will come into place from 25 February whereby Irish nationals arriving by boat, plane or otherwise into the UK will be obliged to present a valid Irish passport? Heretofore, all that was necessary was an ID card. This may not be a matter for the Government of the UK; I think it is Aer Lingus that is involved. It is sharp practice to introduce this on 25 February, which i…
No. It relates to those travelling to mainland Britain with Aer Lingus.
I recognise in the Gallery the representatives of the sector, including the Irish Fish Producers Organisation, IFPO; the Irish South and East Fish Producers Organisation, ISEFPO; and the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, IFPEA. They are here this evening and that is significant. They are extremely concerned. They spent most of last week in Brussels. They were there when the Minister of State met with t…
I feel I must intervene in this debate. I am quite sure there was no reflection on me when it was suggested that there are those who say that it is working and it only needs tweaking at the edges. It is not working and it needs a lot more than tweaking at the edges. I said in the debate on Second Stage that I had the honour of representing this country in the United States a number of years ago as Minister of State. …
I am pleased to have the opportunity to participate in the debate. I will refer to some of the positives in the amendment to the defective blocks legislation. For example, it is an opportunity for retrospective payments to be made to homeowners who previously hit the scheme cap. This is the extra 10% in most cases. I agree with many of the contributors that the date of 29 March 2024 is very much arbitrary and I reque…
10. Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher asked the Minister for Education and Youth the reason an expert report described by an assistant principal officer as significant medical evidence was not acted upon, considering it corroborated the information supplied to the teacher by an employee in the occupational health service, OHS, (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [58433/25]
I wish to ask the Minister about a case that affects a teacher in my constituency. I am reluctant to go into too much detail. I will await the Minister’s response before I pose supplementary questions.
I thank the Minister for that response. At least by her response she is leaving the door open. It is a matter now and I will relate that to the individual to suggest that the person should make a fresh application and follow the procedure. I wish to read into the record that the board of management of the particular school made the decision regarding the granting of critical illness provision, CIP, on the basis of ma…
When this application is resubmitted, will it be assessed by the same officials? I am not casting any aspersions because I do not know who the officials are, but I suggest that the Minister recommend that a fresh pair of eyes process the application, rather than the same individuals. If it is the same individuals, they may take up the same entrenched position. My interest, and I am sure the Minister's interest, is to…