Respite and residential services for persons with intellectual disabilities are in crisis. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides the right to live independently in the community with choices equal to others. They must have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community services, including personal assistance. In Ireland these rights are honoured more in the b…
TDs / Seamus Healy
Seamus Healy
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
102
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
69,402
words spoken in the chamber
Across 297 contributions
338
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
44
topics asked about
Across 14 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 102 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 297 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 3 |
| January 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| February 2025 | 2 | 25 |
| March 2025 | 16 | 16 |
| April 2025 | 0 | 12 |
| May 2025 | 10 | 32 |
| June 2025 | 7 | 0 |
| July 2025 | 0 | 5 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 8 | 8 |
| October 2025 | 0 | 25 |
| November 2025 | 4 | 10 |
| December 2025 | 0 | 12 |
| January 2026 | 1 | 10 |
| February 2026 | 0 | 26 |
| March 2026 | 0 | 5 |
| April 2026 | 10 | 14 |
| May 2026 | 12 | 19 |
| June 2026 | 6 | 22 |
| July 2026 | 7 | 3 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 15 | 26 |
| October 2026 | 4 | 23 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 157 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 Tipperary South 29 November 2024 to now
- party Independent 29 November 2024 to now
Down the centuries, generations of Irish men and women espoused the desire for a 32-county independent sovereign republic. As far back as the 1790s, Theobald Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish republicanism, focused on a vision of complete separation from Britain, the elimination of sectarian divisions and the unity of Catholic, Protestant and dissenter under the common name of "Irishmen". He wanted to see a restructuri…
The provision of childcare services is an area in which I have had a particular interest and involvement for over 30 years. The Elm Park area childcare committee brought together community activists and parents from this area of Clonmel with the aim of providing a not-for-profit childcare service for the area. Clever Clogs, as we know it, is a community-based facility which provides a not-for-profit, quality childcar…
Last week, we had a presentation on stroke awareness and recovery. The session was led by Martin Quinn, a constituent of mine from Bansha in County Tipperary. He is a stroke survivor himself, a national stroke advocate and a lifelong community and voluntary activist at local and national levels. He is a former national president of Muintir na Tire, chair of the Citizens Information Service Network of Companies and an…
Tipperary town, in my constituency, with a population of over 5,000 people and serving a further 10,000 in mid-Tipperary and east Limerick in its hinterland, has no dentist accepting public patients, medical card holders. That is absolutely and totally unacceptable. It is proof positive that the dental and oral health service in this country is totally in disarray and is failing patients very badly. In 2024, the numb…
2. Deputy Seamus Healy asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will immediately abolish the income limit for carer’s allowance in view of the 2024 general election promises and the recent report regarding the difficulties experienced by carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46523/26]
I come back to a very important issue that I have raised previously, namely, the abolition of the means test for the carer's allowance. I am asking the Minister to do that on 1 July, in view of the promises made in the general election in 2024 by all political parties and particularly in view of the recent report by Family Carers Ireland that showed very significant issues in care provision.
The findings of the report from Family Carers Ireland, entitled "The State of Caring 2026", should shock us all. Some of the key findings include that 75% of carers have never received respite, 76% are cutting back on non-essentials, 71% find it difficult to make ends meet, 69% do not receive sufficient formal support, and 49% are cutting back on essentials like food and heating.
A stark 48% experience severe loneli…
That leaves 32%.
Every political party, including Fianna Fáil, made a commitment in general election 2024 to abolish the carer's means test, full stop, no ifs or buts. There were no terms and conditions. There was no small print and no devil in the detail. The Government was going to abolish the means test for carer's allowance, but it has not honoured that commitment. That raises the whole question of trust in politics and politicia…
I welcome and support this motion and fully support the points made previously by my Independent and Parties Technical Group colleagues. I want to take the opportunity to highlight a number of retrofit and insulation issues affecting middle and low income families across the country. The warmer homes scheme available to families in receipt of fuel allowance is an excellent scheme in itself but it is underfunded and u…
As Fianna Fáil leader, the Taoiseach led the party into a confidence and supply arrangement with Fine Gael in 2016, ten years ago. That was in the wake of large-scale water protests, which resulted eventually in the abolition of domestic water charges and the setting up of a special Oireachtas committee on water services. I and former Deputy Thomas Pringle represented the Independent TDs on that committee. That Gover…
No, it has not.
It has been ten years.
The Government has certainly not honoured its ten years of commitments, as I outlined. All those commitments have been broken. The Taoiseach has not answered the questions. We can only presume that he and the Government wish to keep the door open to the future privatisation of water services in this country.
The Taoiseach must know that if that happened, it would be an absolute disaster. We only need to look across …
What about the referendum?
The Taoiseach promised a referendum.
The Taoiseach has not honoured his commitment-----
Answer the question.
He is not answering the question; he is deflecting.
I welcome and support this Bill. In December 2018, the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill was signed into law. Section 7 of the Act provided that a review of the operation of the Act be carried out. That review was included to facilitate monitoring of the operation of the legislation in practice as well as of the delivery of services. A public consultation commenced in December 2021 and concluded in…
Ireland's long and dark history of British imperial domination and our imperially imposed genocidal famine gives Irish people a deep understanding and appreciation of the genocide being perpetrated by Israel on the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. Ireland has both a moral authority and a moral responsibility to lead a campaign to exclude Israel from all economic, social, cultural and sporting activitie…
I again raise the boil water notice in place in Tipperary town, which affects over 5,000 people. It was implemented originally on 12 February 2026. For about ten weeks, the only information available to anybody was the initial post on the Irish Water website. I raised the issue with the Taoiseach and, through his intervention, an email was secured within a couple of days telling us that a new well was to be installed…
I welcome this motion and will also support tomorrow's motion from the Social Democrats. Ireland must lead an international campaign to exclude Israel, a genocidal apartheid state, from all sporting fixtures and competitions and there must be no soccer games between Ireland and Israel at home in Ireland or on neutral grounds abroad. There is significant and growing opposition to these fixtures. In November 2025, 93% …
Families and businesses are now living through the second global fossil fuel crisis in five years. We are increasingly vulnerable as long as we depend on energy imports. Unless we take action to diversify away from fossil fuels, we will again be hit by the next crisis. When that hits, pensioners, the sick and families will again worry about the cost of home heating oil. Farmers, fishers, agricultural contractors and …