This is a CSO figure that shows the lowest number for any first quarter in 15 years. That is a measurement. Regardless of whether the Minister agrees with it or wants to accept it is his issue, but these are the facts. I printed them off.
TDs / Thomas Gould
Thomas Gould
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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
We have the lowest number for any first quarter and the Minister says it is not a measure. The Minister can disagree with me, but he should not say these figures are not right because they are right. The Government is not delivering. This proves the Government is not delivering on dereliction because the vast majority of these derelict sites are not connected to an electrical supply, so if there were no reconnections…
-----that shows that the Government's policy on dereliction has failed. These are the facts. I am not making them up.
I am sure the Minister can recognise that these figures are accurate.
It is unbelievable that the Minister would say my conclusions are wrong. I am using CSO figures. The Minister does not have any figures to contradict mine, so I am right. They prove the Government's policy on dereliction is failing.
I will give another figure to prove how the Government is failing. Some 2,361 homes were self-assessed as liable for the vacant homes tax in 2025. According to CSO figures - the CSO is p…
-----it would help to solve the housing crisis. The Minister said he was looking at staged payments. Where are the staged payments? People want to turn these vacant homes around.
They do not have the money and they do not have the support from the Minister.
Some of them have been vacant for 20 years.
Is the vacant homes tax working?
I wish I was here to welcome this with a sense of hope but this is not a strategy. It is a shortlist of options. People are dying on our roads. We are one of the only states in Europe that is going backwards in relation to road safety. In 2025, 21 people tragically died on the roads of Cork. In 2024, 18 died and seven died in 2021. These are horrific figures. Each of these people left behind a distraught family heart…
I support the amendment. It is a commonsense amendment that requires transparency, openness and discussion. There is really important work to be done regarding infrastructure. We really need to get it right now. The Government is bringing forward a plan, which we support, but it is not going far enough. I will give a couple of examples. The point was made by a number of speakers about transparency and what projects g…
We have the same issue with northern distributor road. We have an elective hospital that was promised 20 years ago. It is vital that these pieces of infrastructure are delivered not alone for northside of Cork city but for Munster.
Someone made a point about delivering infrastructure quickly. That is impossible. It will never happen on this island, especially in the Twenty-six Counties, but we could aim to deliver i…
I want to start by congratulating Councillor Ted Tynan of the Worker's Party who retired from politics in Cork City Council last night. The reason this is relevant is that Ted fought for the working classes and communities on the north side of Cork city for years. However, the one thing he always fought against was the privatisation agenda of Fiann Fáil and Fine Gael. We had many marches and protested together many t…
I recently undertook a housing survey across the State. There is more information in it than in everything the Minister or Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, said earlier because these are the facts. I will give the Minister a few facts. Some 83% of people said they had maintenance issues with black mould all over their houses. Some 77% of people said they had damp. They are major issues. Black mould, damp and cold i…
7. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications for urgent needs payments in Cork in the first three months of each of the years 2019, 2025 and 2026 respectively, by category of application, and the number approved, in tabular form. [31076/26]
Will the Minister provide an update on the number of applications for urgent needs payments in Cork for the first three months of the years 2019, 2025 and 2026, by category of application and the numbers approved, in tabular form?
Go raibh maith agat. I would have preferred to have the information in front of me so I could have gone through it. There has been a reduction of 40 payments made between 2025 and 2026, if what the Minister has said is correct. I find that unbelievable. More and more people are coming to my office every week in urgent need - people in debt, whether in arrears on electricity or on gas; people who have had a car break …
If we are serious, the Minister has a job of work to do now. Over 300,000 people are in arrears on their energy bills. The Minister for energy has announced that there will be a 9% rise in energy prices, so more and more people will go into arrears. What is the plan? Has the Minister devised a plan in his Department to support affected people and let them know support exists?
The fuel allowance ends today. In the ne…
I welcome the opportunity to speak on these very important issues. The reality is that State is failing vulnerable children. A lady contacted me in my clinic on Monday. She was in foster care the majority of her life. For a short period when she was 17, she tried to go back home and rebuild a relationship with her mother but this did not work out and she went back into residential care. When she turned 18, she was to…
Most days, the Taoiseach and I fight and argue about policy and politics. Today, is not one of those days. I come in here today to speak on behalf of Craig Coady. He had a family, a wife and two sons. His wife now is in long-term hospitalisation. She has Huntington's disease. They buried their 13-year-old son Rory, who died as a result of Friedreich's ataxia. Their second son Paudie, who is 15 years old, is dying of …
Can I just say this?
I spoke to-----
I spoke to Craig this morning. He is pleading from his heart that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health see to it that this drug is provided.
On the 13th of this month a boy in my constituency turned six. Boys and girls his age organise parties, but there was no one to come to his party, only his family. He has been without a school place for a year. I contacted the NCSE about him last August and still he has no school place. It is nearly May and they still do not know whether he will have a school place in August.
He is not alone; there are hundreds of o…
As the Minister of State and I both know, a 19-bed unit in Heather House was first announced in 2022. Four years later this special dementia unit has not been opened and all we are getting is excuse after excuse and no date for when it will be open. The latest update from the HSE is that following HIQA's inspection, it is now looking to make amendments to the building. There is still no opening time. I was told in re…