Thank you.
TDs / Thomas Gould
Thomas Gould
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
1,097
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
103,260
words spoken in the chamber
Across 660 contributions
356
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
211
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 1,097 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 660 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 26 | 5 |
| February 2025 | 50 | 16 |
| March 2025 | 43 | 29 |
| April 2025 | 42 | 29 |
| May 2025 | 37 | 54 |
| June 2025 | 33 | 46 |
| July 2025 | 126 | 54 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 31 | 16 |
| October 2025 | 36 | 46 |
| November 2025 | 74 | 81 |
| December 2025 | 85 | 29 |
| January 2026 | 55 | 20 |
| February 2026 | 66 | 52 |
| March 2026 | 43 | 25 |
| April 2026 | 76 | 19 |
| May 2026 | 80 | 30 |
| June 2026 | 46 | 14 |
| July 2026 | 101 | 35 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 21 | 22 |
| October 2026 | 26 | 38 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 403 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 Cork North-Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
I have spoken to the Minister about Paudie Coady. He is 16 years old and has been diagnosed with Friedreich's ataxia. His brother passed away from the same condition last year. It is a terminal condition. It is unbelievable that his father, Craig, has buried one son, has another son who is dying and that his wife is now in care because she has Huntington's disease. I cannot even get my mind around the tragedy facing …
The power is there.
I am standing here as a man, and to be honest, I cannot imagine a situation where I would be told by my doctor to go away to have a think about things and come back in three days. It is just wrong, it does not make sense and it is not right. Why would anyone be told, when it is a health issue, to go away and think about it? How patronising is that?
This legislation is about protecting women, helping them at a very d…
We must stop the game; it is as simple as that. The Irish Government must step in now. As the Social Democrats have outlined, all sporting events with Israel should be stopped. We should lead a campaign in Europe and the world to have Israel banned and boycotted, the exact same way it was done with the Russians. There are double standards here. The question we must ask ourselves is: where do these double standards co…
Tourism is such an important part of the Irish economy. It is such an important industry. More needs to be done to develop it, especially in my own city of Cork. In 1916, Thomas Kent's home was raided and his brother was seriously injured. He and his brothers were taken away. Thomas Kent was convicted and found guilty by the British. He was later shot in the grounds of the old Cork prison in the Glen. That was on 9 M…
The first thing I want to say on the Finance Bill we are discussing is that it goes to show how this Government just does not get it. It is another failure at a time when the Government had the money and knew people were struggling. It could have stepped in. If people throw their minds back to late February and March when people came on to the street, remember the anger that was there. The Minister of State and the G…
The Minister of State’s Government was not where it should have been, namely in the Dáil doing its job, protecting ordinary workers, families, pensioners, farmers, hauliers and small businesses who were, and who still are, looking for help. The Minister of State can try to interrupt me but I talk to these people. I was on the line in Whitegate, Cork city and Youghal. Those people are still feeling it today. There are…
-----Electric Ireland has 1 million customers and it is putting up the cost of electricity by 8% and gas by 7.7% and the Government is doing nothing to tackle it. What is the famous phrase? It is standing idly by while energy companies come in and gouge the market. They pile the pressure on ordinary, hard-working families and what is the Government doing? It has half a Bill instead of delivering for people. We have p…
Hear, hear.
In 2013, the current Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, described the triple lock as being at the core of our neutrality. At the time, there were protests in Kyiv, and the following year the annexation of Crimea took place. There was a war in Afghanistan and there was a civil war in Syria, with the Russians and the Americans involved in it.
Now he is saying times have drastically changed but that is not true. Things …
When NAMA came into being, the State was in a really dark place. The economy had collapsed, there were no jobs and people were really struggling. We had ghost estates and sites that were half developed. Fianna Fáil destroyed the economy. I remember it as clear as day. I remember friends of mine losing their jobs. To add insult to injury, when Fine Gael came into government in 2011, all it gave a damn about was auster…
We have all heard in recent weeks about the scandal on Connaught Street in Dublin. Dublin City Council has finally agreed to meet with the residents today but this is not the only such site in the heart of Dublin city centre. No. 6 Terrace Place sits at the end of a row of beautifully maintained homes off Seán McDermott Street. It was added to the derelict sites register in 2008 and was subject to a compulsory purcha…
The Government amendment to the motion is an insult to the more than 7,000 families who received notices to quit in the first three months of the year and the thousands of families who received such notices at the end of last year. Those people are facing eviction and do not know where they will be in four, five, six, seven or eight months' time. They are asking where they are going to live and where their children w…
141. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the voids programme review committed to in the Government's housing plan. [37768/26]
On page 76 of the Government's housing plan, there is a commitment to develop a new voids funding programme that would "incentivise lower vacancy rates and faster turnaround times for vacant local authority stock". The plan was launched 187 days ago on 13 November 2025. In that time, only one action has been taken on the voids scheme.
The Minister talked to colleagues earlier about policy. I launched a policy to return vacant, boarded-up homes to use in housing families. This is the low-hanging fruit and I still cannot understand why the Minister, his Department and the other Ministers in the Government do not tackle it. The voids programme for 2026 will allow for the return of 2,200 homes, with local authorities receiving only €11,000 per unit wh…
The Minister mentioned the NOAC report. I will refer to some of the figures in that report. In 2024, there were 4,251 empty council houses, which was an increase from the previous year. One in four of those homes was empty longer than a year. I know of houses in my constituency that have been empty and boarded up for years. The problem is a lot of local authorities do not have the excess funding to bring the long-ter…
They do not have the money to do it.
Some of them are up to 100 years old.
They cannot do so.
They cannot do it because the Government cut their funding.
145. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the progress being made in addressing vacancy and dereliction following reports of the lowest number of quarter 1 electricity reconnections since Central Statistics Office, CSO, data began. [37512/26]
The first quarter of this year saw the lowest number of first quarter reconnections and it was the second lowest number for any quarter since the CSO began collecting data in 2011.
I find it astounding and unbelievable that the Minister would say this is not a measure.