I thank Deputy Rice for the dedication and vision he has brought to this most important issue. There is a postcode lottery when it comes to accessing effective doctor care within our system. To give context, the national benchmark is one GP per 1,759 people. In my constituency of Dublin Central, it is dramatically higher. In the north inner city, for example, it is one GP for every 3,525 people. In Cabra-Glasnevin, i…
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
It would be completely wrong to reframe this as some form of simple communication problem. This is a systematic policy failure. Successive governments have designed a model that narrows how care is defined. It signed off on it and allowed letters to be issued. When the schools and the parents rightfully reacted, suddenly everyone seemed to be taken by surprise. Absolutely nothing about this was surprising. You cannot…
Get to the vote.
Who is supporting it?
I am not opposed to this amendment at all. My point is probably more relevant to the next amendment, but heaven knows if we will ever get there. Of course, we should have transparency in relation to contracts, but that should be the lowest bar. Our position is that we should be moving towards State-owned reception centres. I fear that supporting an amendment such as this enshrines privatisation into the system, which…
We voted against the last amendment because we feared it would enshrine privatisation in the system. We make no apologies for that. We are dealing with a Bill that enshrines the detention of children in the system. When we talk about introducing a per person cap, we present the image that asylum seekers are somehow being kept in the lap of luxury. There is rightfully a lot of talk about profiteering. From the foundat…
I move amendment No. 20:
In page 28, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following:
“(14) The best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration in the carrying out of procedures in respect of a minor under this Part, in accordance with Article 14(1) of the Eurodac Regulation.”.
I move amendment No. 21:
In page 32, to delete lines 14 to 18.
In the first instance, I will speak about amendment No. 21. Let me quote the subsection of the Bill I am seeking to remove so we will have a sense of it. It provides:
Where a member of An Garda Síochána, an immigration officer or an officer of the Minister has reasonable grounds for believing that it is in the interests of public policy or national sec…
Before the Minister came in, the Minister of State talked about being a true democrat and about the Government having a democratic right to legislate. Nobody is refuting that. However, if the Minister knocked at any door in this country, as all of us across the Chamber do, who would ask that a victim of trafficking be compelled to go to a screening centre? There is no obligation on that. Screening procedures are not …
In the first instance, a victim of trafficking will be identified by their vulnerability assessment. That is provided for under the special reception conditions. I am surprised the Minister did not know that.
Given the day that we had today in the Dáil when another State apology was made, I cannot help thinking of the words of Christine Buckley. I am sure most of us around the Chamber remember the incredible work of…
I reiterate that the screening procedures, as designed, are not designed to ensure early detection of human trafficking and modern slavery. There is also no clear referral pathway in the Bill in regard to the national referral mechanism. That is really important because I think something that has not really been understood yet in the 13 hours we have given to this Committee Stage is that this Bill comes into law on 1…
You have indeed but for a very worthy cause.
The Minister will remember the justice committee in the last Dáil. If he was sitting now where we are, I wonder if he would accept that this is an effective way of doing business or passing legislation. Regardless of whether we agree with it, we all agree that it is some of the most important legislation that will come before the Chamber over this Dáil term. There are 276…
There are 267 amendments on the Bill, of which I tabled over 90. It would be important if speakers could stick to their own amendments or the section. Otherwise we will be here all night and we will not get through it.
I will be brief. What exactly is the plan for the common travel area? Could the Minister of State outline that in his response? I would be grateful if I knew whether Deputy Carthy's amendment will be supported. We have had so much conversation about the International Protection Bill and the transposition of the EU pact but I have yet to hear a Government Minister or TD lay out for me exactly what is the arrangement w…
To build on the question I asked before the Minister of State made his contribution, the crux of the matter for me in supporting amendment No. 4 is that if we are to believe the figures - we have heard numerous different figures but let us settle on 84% of people who claim asylum in Ireland come through the common travel area - to be true, we effectively have a piece of legislation that is massive in its scope and in…
I am conscious that in 2020 a UK-Ireland returns agreement was signed that was challenged in the courts on the Irish side and found to be at best legally dubious, so it has not used. The Government updated it in 2024 or 2025 but the UK side has not enacted it at all. We are effectively going to have an International Protection Bill that is a transposition of EU law, which is absolutely fine as a theory, but I will be…
Could the Minister clarify absconding? If a person travels through the common travel area to the North, are they considered to have absconded from the State at that point, and if they come back?
I asked the Minister about how absconding was defined and if absconding comes into play if a person travels from the Republic up to the North. He then gave greater clarification. Here is my problem. He has absolutely no lawful way of policing that. There are no measurements. We discussed this on the previous amendment. We absolutely do not want any form of border infrastructure between the North and the Republic. Tha…
Can I raise a matter of order? It is Committee Stage.
My question pertains to inserting a definition of "legal counselling". It is not a matter of order and it is actually a matter of clarification pertain to the committee's Standing Orders. I asked for a definition of "legal counselling". It was ruled out of order via a money message but legal counselling is provided for in the Bill as we discussed today. How can something in the Bill be ruled out of order via a money …
I thank the Ceann Comhairle.
Given that "legal counselling" is mentioned in amendments to section 26 of the Bill, it would be grossly irresponsible to leave it there undefined. If that is to be the case, could the Minister either define it or commit to removing it from the Bill?
The Minister is more familiar than I am with the legal principle of non-regression. Given the absence of a definition and the Minister's commitment to bring in another amendment, it will probably be the case that legal advice in person will no longer be available in the first instance. We can probably all take it at this point that this is where the Bill is going. The Minister might confirm that for me.
He might the…
I do not expect the Minister was watching the justice committee meeting yesterday but I will give him a relevant sentence from the Free Legal Advice Centres: "Ireland’s system of civil legal aid may go from crisis to collapse altogether". It stated that would arise specifically from the implementation of the EU migration pact and its transposition. Yesterday, we heard the Legal Aid Board was on the point of collapse.…
It is important to say that paralegals cannot provide individualised advice in that sense. In the context of this 12-week timeframe, individuals who come here may suffer from trauma that they cannot convey in the immediacy with which this pact will demand. They will not receive the appropriate level of advice through the mechanisms the Minister has laid out because they will not have a qualified person giving them ac…