I went around my constituency yesterday during the public sector strikes. I met a lot of different people - radiographers, social workers, porters, cleaners, and catering staff, many of whom work here in Leinster House. I got a text from a constituent asking, “How have we arrived at a situation where every dog in the street knows the cost of living has soared and this current Government does not understand the increa…
TDs / Eoin Hayes
Eoin Hayes
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539
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
46,272
words spoken in the chamber
Across 176 contributions
420
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
163
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 539 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 176 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| March 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| April 2025 | 44 | 0 |
| May 2025 | 61 | 2 |
| June 2025 | 7 | 1 |
| July 2025 | 21 | 4 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 8 | 13 |
| October 2025 | 64 | 6 |
| November 2025 | 35 | 10 |
| December 2025 | 16 | 14 |
| January 2026 | 38 | 11 |
| February 2026 | 26 | 35 |
| March 2026 | 9 | 15 |
| April 2026 | 33 | 17 |
| May 2026 | 7 | 13 |
| June 2026 | 78 | 10 |
| July 2026 | 72 | 7 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 15 | 10 |
| October 2026 | 5 | 8 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 118 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 Bay South 29 November 2024 to now
- party Social Democrats 29 November 2024 to 10 January 2025
- party Independent 10 January 2025 to 10 April 2025
- party Social Democrats 10 April 2025 to now
Absolutely. It is taking too long.
As I rise, we have an enormous set of interconnected problems in Ireland. Our country is an island, and is almost entirely reliant on foreign energy in order to function. The vast majority of that energy is still in the form of fossil fuels. So many households are still dependent on fossil fuels, and there is no better example of that than home-heating oil. As a result of this reliance on imports, we are in a positio…
Three in ten older people living alone are in poverty, which is double what the figure was in 2023. It is one of the highest rates since Fine Gael entered government in 2011. This budget was one of the meanest of the decade for the elderly. A paltry €3 increase to the living alone allowance will hardly feed the cat, never mind keep up with the highest electricity prices in Europe. My staff yesterday spoke to a pensio…
The Minister is being dishonest. The fuel allowance is less this year than it was last year.
It is less.
The Government is leaving older people in the cold.
There is perhaps no greater responsibility that Dáil Éireann has than how it decides to spend the people's money. In every budget put forward by a Government, the social protection section represents the largest area of expenditure for the State. It supports over 3.8 million people, or 70% of the population: 850,000 pensioners; 620,000 carers and disabled people; over 125,000 lone parent families; and 1.8 million chi…
2. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection the work his Department is undertaking to increase uptake of the working family payment. [67508/26]
My question is about the uptake of the working family payment. As the Minister knows, child poverty is one of the priorities for the Government and a major scourge within our society. I would like to hear how the Government is focusing on getting families who need that payment and would do very well with it to take it up.
I thank the Minister for his reply. On Committee Stage, the assistant secretary general shared the information that, as the Minister said, there would be 56,000 recipients in 2026. However, the Department estimates a 53% uptake among those who are eligible, which means that approximately 50,000 people who would get that payment were they to apply for it are not getting it. That is a big problem. What comes to mind fo…
I accept that. I appreciate anything the Minister and his officials do in that regard. It is important to acknowledge that consistent child poverty is at 8%, so it is double what it was before. When we take housing into account, it is about 10%. It is about 26.6% for families whose youngest child is between the ages of zero and five. Working families really do need this kind of support.
Child poverty is something th…
8. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection the analysis his Department has carried out on the degree to which income disregards and social welfare payment rates have kept pace with inflation and purchasing power measured against equivalent number of hours worked on minimum wage. [67510/26]
My question is about the payments and income disregards, how they are adjusted over time to keep up with inflation and the changes to the national minimum wage. As the Minister might be aware, and I am sure many advocacy organisations have said to it to him as they have said it to me, the changes to the minimum wage have implied a certain number of hours that someone can work that puts them over the income disregard …
I completely understand. The Minister trots out this line that he is keeping up with inflation or surpassing inflation. However, all the research would suggest - this is something put out by the European Union and the OECD - that the lower income populations have a higher rate of inflation because, as a proportion of their income or their costs, they often have to pick more expensive options. Whether it is pay-as-you…
There is also the context of housing. We know that poverty is increasing when we take housing into account. I do not lay that at the Minister’s door, and I believe it is a whole-of-government problem. The Minister said that he increased the fuel allowance by four weeks this year, and that was a welcome and needed measure. However, it is important for people to understand that it was actually a restoration. Fuel allow…
I thank the Minister and his officials for bringing forward this Bill, much of which contains, as he said, technical and administrative rationalisations. That is the unseen and unglamorous work in legislation and Departments but it is important, and I sincerely thank the officials for doing it. Improvements to the operations of the Charities Regulator are very welcome to ensure public confidence in the efficiency and…
I welcome this timely motion and its call for a moratorium on data centre development and for electricity credits for families paid for by a tax on corporations. The other week, the energy Minister, as he did today, made the outrageous assertion that data centres are to Ireland what car factories are to Germany. It is a fallacious argument with no merit whatsoever. Instead of creating hundreds of thousands of high-pa…
As this is my final time speaking, I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all of the staff in the Oireachtas, including the ushers in particular who take such good care of us and everybody who makes this place work so well, for all that they have done. I hope that they get a good and well-deserved break.
It is possible, perhaps even hopeful, in my lifetime that we will see a united Ireland and the end of partition on this …
I congratulate the Spanish on their victory last night at the World Cup.
I welcome the Taoiseach's report. In Spain the price per MW hour for electricity is €14 and in Ireland it is nearly ten times higher, at €130. Pedro Sánchez has been more vociferous in his criticism of inaction against Israel than this Government has been. He passed an occupied territories Bill before Ireland did so, including a ban on advertis…
Certainly not.
The Government closed down Dublin Castle and the surrounding area in my constituency for the EU Presidency security arrangements for six months. Shockingly, it gave no official communication to any of the businesses affected in advance. One business, the Silk Road Café, has had to take legal action that is currently with the courts. Another, the Bottega Toffoli restaurant, has seen turnover reduce by 40%. A third, th…
I welcome this opportunity to make statements on dementia and the programme for Government commitment on this issue. On behalf of the Social Democrats, I also welcome Cian and Jordan Adams and all those in the Gallery today, who care so much about this issue. Cian and Jordan inspired the whole country with their marathon running. It was a huge achievement. In particular what has stayed with me from the media coverage…
By far the hardest conversations I have with constituents are the ones struggling with disability services for their children. I knock on the door and it opens, sometimes with their dependent adult child with an intellectual disability by their side. You can see the difficulty etched into the faces of those who care so deeply for those vulnerable family relatives and their despair with the State that continues to fai…
We are talking about this year, not last year.