Tomorrow, in the Taoiseach's home city of Cork, every single solicitor is removing themselves from the legal aid scheme. Imagine that. It is not just Cork. It is Dublin and all over the country. Thousands of cases have had to be adjourned, undoubtedly leaving so many victims of crime awaiting justice. This flat fee proposal that has been brought in is causing chaos. Solicitors have rightfully said that there has been…
TDs / Gary Gannon
Gary Gannon
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
645
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
147,808
words spoken in the chamber
Across 475 contributions
389
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
109
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 645 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 475 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 6 | 1 |
| February 2025 | 32 | 27 |
| March 2025 | 90 | 23 |
| April 2025 | 117 | 32 |
| May 2025 | 32 | 24 |
| June 2025 | 49 | 39 |
| July 2025 | 11 | 19 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 15 | 9 |
| October 2025 | 38 | 17 |
| November 2025 | 28 | 22 |
| December 2025 | 10 | 7 |
| January 2026 | 40 | 35 |
| February 2026 | 23 | 45 |
| March 2026 | 15 | 31 |
| April 2026 | 5 | 27 |
| May 2026 | 9 | 16 |
| June 2026 | 35 | 26 |
| July 2026 | 23 | 39 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 41 | 14 |
| October 2026 | 26 | 22 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 249 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 Dublin Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Social Democrats 29 November 2024 to now
Last week, I had a meeting with two individuals, Sharon Lynn and Bryan Gallagher, which left a lasting impression on me. Both lost siblings individually in one-punch attacks. What they are asking for is structured sentencing guidelines for manslaughter cases, but also a national strategy on male-on-male violence. Is that something the Taoiseach's Department has considered?
This is the seventh year I have showed up to vote for something which I profoundly disagree with. I believe fully in a trial by jury. Ordinary citizens should be able to sit in judgment. When the State accuses somebody of a serious crime, one of the strongest protections we possess is the right to be judged by our peers. Yet, seven years in a row I have voted for something I disagree with. This year and last year, I …
Has the Taoiseach any idea what is happening in the Department of justice at the moment? There seems to be an impulsivity driving and leading the Department that has scant regard for consequences. In our courts, for example, the criminal legal aid system is on the verge of collapse. Solicitors have taken to removing their labour for three days and that will continue into next week. Over the past couple of weeks, when…
Can we see the analysis?
I wish the Minister of State well in her new role. I am sure she will find it to be very fast-moving and to have many different parts. We are finding that sometimes the hurry does not result in things operating at their most effective. Anyone who walked down to the District Court, the Central Criminal Court or the High Court today would have seen evidence of that.
This Bill is very important. That we do not have rul…
The audacity of such an amendment from Deputy Carthy. Imagine wanting an annual report on a brand new structure, a brand new office, that we are told will probably have 300,000 requests and will try to hold to account some of the largest corporations in the world that may be liable to fines of 2% of their annual turnover. This democratic Chamber, which is supposedly one of accountability where we hold account, is sim…
Will it impact on the Courts Service?
I have a brief question. In terms of the annual report which is catered for in section 20, what should this House expect from the first annual report? In 12 months’ time, when the first annual report is delivered, what information should we expect? Presumably we understand that the office may evolve. There was reference to 30 staff when we were at the committee and it seems to be 20 now, along with a budget of €2.8 m…
It is an important moment to acknowledge the courage and commitment of Mr. David French who has travelled here for every committee hearing and briefing out of love for his sister Valerie and to ensure the passage of the Bill we are discussing today. It is an important moment to take stock to reflect on that courage. Too often, we see people who have to place the trauma of their loss or absence alongside the courage n…
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, may I come in? I support the amendment and will be very brief. The Minister has said a couple of times that there is nothing to stop the family having the right to make a request-----
The Social Democrats will support this motion because we want Ireland to opt in to the EU directive on combating firearms trafficking and other firearms-related offences. We do so because firearms trafficking, by its very nature, is a cross-border criminal activity. Organised criminal networks do not respect borders. The firearms used by criminal gangs across the country do not magically appear here. They are traffic…
Nobody is for a second disputing the problem this legislation is trying to solve. The reality is electronic evidence now forms part of almost every criminal investigation, whether organised crime, fraud, child exploitation, trafficking or terrorism. The days when investigations were confined to physical evidence and paper trails are long gone. The need for international co-operation is real, as is the need to moderni…
It is an extraordinary attempt at an Irish solution to tell us that the game of football the Irish national team is going to play against a country the Irish State believes is committing genocide against its people will now take place at a neutral venue and expect that to be some form of compromise. The Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, referenced that the Taoiseach himself believes that Israel's actions against…
I acknowledge the work done in this area across the Chamber, in particular by my colleague, Deputy Rice. The provisions related to disregarding historical convictions are not only welcome, they are overdue. It is sometimes easy to talk about progress as though it is inevitable and Ireland simply arrived at a more equal place by accident. The reality is those rights were hard fought for. They were won by grit, determi…
I will keep it brief because I do not want to reiterate the points that have already been made. The Minister might be able to answer me: is he still open to making amendments at the Seanad stage in regard to improving some aspects of the Bill?
He is. I thank the Minister.
I did not intend to come back in but the Minister said something I profoundly disagree with. On the idea of having the cut-off at 1922 because the State should not be responsible for what happened when it was a colony, the Minister began his contributions earlier on by talking about how he inherited this system from the UK. It is not like we radically transformed the system right afterwards. What we did was maintain …
-----but we also maintained the system. A person who was imprisoned in 1921 for what were homosexual offences at the time would still have been in prison in 1922 or potentially in 1923.
We have become custodians of our own history. We cannot just draw a line. If the Government is not going to apologise, we can find the means by which we can honour, acknowledge, respect and say that we became complicit because it was…
On what basis is the Minister making the assumption that the scheme would be improved? Nobody else but the Minister seems to believe it. The Law Society and the Bar Council do not believe it. I have not seen any research that points to it. In fact, the evidence that those in the system would have says that we will have to develop another two-tier criminal system where those who can afford to pay will get better treat…
There is not a lot of time left. This is an issue of such importance that I am going to concede my time, if it is okay with the Minister, so that we can have a vote on this particular issue. That might require the Minister to allow a vote to happen. I think that is fair.
We will not have time to finish, though.
Yes, just to allow the vote to happen because once-----
One of the most lamentable things I have heard over the last couple of weeks and months as we talk about whether Ireland should fulfil its fixture against a country we believe is enacting a genocide against another is when people say, "But sure Ireland might lose six points". Ireland might lose six points in a Nations League division 2 game and potentially be put down into division 3, but so what? What do we actually…
I want to talk about the erosion of a community service. I am conscious the Minister of State may be taking this on behalf a different Minister. I have to be honest - the Minister of State is an Independent who is not part of the same party as the Minister with responsibility for the matter and I am not sure what role the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has in relation to the l…