Will they be exempt from being zoned? Can it be decided by a planning application? Thank you very much, a Cheann Comhairle. I am sorry, I misunderstood the times.
TDs / Danny Healy-Rae
Danny Healy-Rae
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
261
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
112,514
words spoken in the chamber
Across 461 contributions
239
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
107
topics asked about
Across 17 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 261 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 461 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| January 2025 | 19 | 1 |
| February 2025 | 27 | 28 |
| March 2025 | 21 | 8 |
| April 2025 | 16 | 12 |
| May 2025 | 9 | 37 |
| June 2025 | 6 | 15 |
| July 2025 | 33 | 37 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 17 | 11 |
| October 2025 | 4 | 37 |
| November 2025 | 15 | 54 |
| December 2025 | 3 | 31 |
| January 2026 | 10 | 20 |
| February 2026 | 9 | 16 |
| March 2026 | 12 | 18 |
| April 2026 | 10 | 24 |
| May 2026 | 7 | 26 |
| June 2026 | 19 | 31 |
| July 2026 | 9 | 5 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 10 | 21 |
| October 2026 | 5 | 28 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 175 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 Kerry 29 November 2024 to now
- party Independent 29 November 2024 to now
I am glad to get this opportunity. I am delighted that the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, is taking the questions today. As he knows himself, we have not always agreed about everything, but he takes the question and he comes back and gives an answer. I hope that, on top of all the other times I have asked these same questions, something will happen now.
We have a clause in Kerry known as the rural areas under significa…
Just let me finish this, please. Could we say that these do not need to be zoned and only need to be decided by a planning application?
Many of these places where the Government says developers could build a treatment plant-----
-----are not even zoned for housing, so this will hold all that up again.
When does the Government propose to exempt planning permission for the granny flats-----
Kenmare has been starved of private housing schemes for almost 20 years, first because we did not have an adequate treatment plant - some €40 million has been spent on that and it is fully operational - and now because we are told that the water supply is not adequate. I have raised this here before, including in recent weeks, and I want to know what the answer is. I ask again that the Government liaise with Uisce Éi…
I am asking as well for a new grant of €20,000, on top of whatever is there before, for houses built under that size.
There is merit in that. I ask for forbearance, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
Kerry County Council is now building no rural cottages. It is building hardly any houses at all. It was doing great work. People got houses built on their lands-----
-----and when they got on their feet, they bought out the houses. That is not happening at all now.
I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
The regulator is stopping it.
Employers all over the country are struggling with increased rate costs, pension auto-enrolment costs, and increased wage costs. Employees and people on social welfare are struggling with the cost of living, including energy and electricity costs. Everyone is struggling with the costs of the road and the price of petrol and diesel. At the same time, the Government was able last week to devote another €125 million to …
Every day since Bord na Móna was closed, the cost of electricity has gone up. There is no account whatsoever of a regulator keeping any track of what is going on. No one is saying "boo" to all these electricity companies. They are competing with one another to put up the price of electricity and no one is watching.
The other thing is carbon tax. When carbon tax was brought in, the cost of fuel - petrol and diesel - …
Sit down-----
The Government's plan to lock people who are renting houses into six-year tenancies is not going to work in Kerry. People get on to me every day because landlords are refusing to continue leasing properties to them. Trying to force people into six-year tenancies is not going to work.
The plan the Government has to force Airbnb properties into long-term letting is not going to work either. That is how people have bee…
She objects, and then comes in here giving out about there being no houses.
I am glad of the opportunity to contribute. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this good and sensible motion.
I congratulate the Minister of State opposite on making his comeback to the ranks of junior Ministers. On the morning on which we were wondering who the new junior Minister would be, I asked him if he was in line and what was happening. I wish him the best.
As I said, this is an important issue, particularly in a place such as Kerry that has mountains, including MacGillycuddy's Reeks and Mangerton mountain. We have a topography that no other county has, or, at least, that not many other counties have. We have the Atlantic Ocean pounding on three or four sides. We have three peninsulas, namely the Iveragh, Beara and Dingle peninsulas. We have many miles of coastline. It …
I am glad to get time to raise this very important matter, the spread of tuberculosis and the TB eradication scheme, which is clearly not working. We have more outbreaks of TB now after 46 or 47 years of testing. There are so many farmers going down in east Kerry, mid-Kerry and south Kerry. Even in Kilgarvan, many farmers have gone down, including our neighbour, Mikey Joe Murphy, who is very local to us and does ever…
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. It is very clear that we and the Department are not doing enough. If we keep going the way we have gone for the past 46 years and we do not change something, it will be the same story for whoever is here in 50 years' time. There is no point in the world going around vaccinating badgers. We do not know whether they had TB, whether they were infected with it already or what …
That is devastating for farmers. They cannot understand it. We rarely hear about an inconclusive animal. The numbers are getting bigger.
Before it was one, two or three but now if a fella has 60 cows, 26 go down. I apologise to the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.
There was another cow called Haughey.