On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 509 of 516 decisive votes (0 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| FF | Fianna Fáil | 19,180 | 2020-02-20 – 2026-09-30 |
Membership spells on record: FF 1989-06-15–1992-11-05 · FF 1992-11-25–1997-05-15 · FF 1997-06-06–2002-04-25 · FF 2002-05-17–2007-04-30 · FF 2007-05-24–2011-02-01 · FF 2011-02-25–2016-03-09 · FF 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · FF 2020-02-08–2024-11-08 · FF 2024-11-29–present
-----Deputy McDonald said it herself, in her opening remarks, that a minority now uses turf in our country in respect of their energy needs. It is important that we protect the rights of people in rural Ireland in terms of turbary rights, people utilising turf in their own bogs and traditional practices in turf sharing. They are not being banned at all.
There will be no restrictions on people who own their own bogs and use turf in their domestic fire or share it with neighbours. There is no ban on the gifting of peat by those with rights to harvest sod peat. What Deputy McDonald needs to be very careful of is the fact that the big issue here is the coal industry; that is the big villain of the piece here. Back in the early 1990s, the former Minister Mary Harney introduced a ban on smoky coal that was transformative in terms of air quality in this city and other la…
What I say to Deputy McDonald and to all who have influence in Northern Ireland is that, as Deputy O'Dowd pointed out, there is an amount of smoky coal coming into the Republic with no controls.
This is damaging health here. We need to deal with this too. Smoky coal is the target here, not turf.
There is responsibility on all sides of the House, including Deputy McDonald-----
-----to get off the fence in terms of what is necessary-----
-----for the health of people.
We have offset that. You know that.
I do not believe in the abolition of the carbon tax and neither does Sinn Féin.
It is in the motion. Sinn Féin really engages in endless duplicity on this issue. It calls for the abolition of carbon tax but it factors the revenue from carbon tax into its alternative budgets. It calls for stopping any increase in carbon tax but when we offset-----
-----the impact of that carbon increase, it still plays games. The excise duty on kerosene, which is the main home heating oil, is carbon tax. Be honest about it. Be transparent about it.
You never call it. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald keeps on saying "excise duty". It is carbon tax on home heating oil.
What we decided to do is take offsetting measures-----
-----to more than compensate for the increase which will not impact on people. The real issue here, which Deputy McDonald has not addressed-----
No, it is not, actually. It is smoky coal.
The bigger issue is, and Deputy Fergus O'Dowd nailed it in November 2021 when he spoke in the Dáil, is that we need a major clampdown on the cross-Border sale of solid fuels and the appalling illegal advertising. Lots of smoky coal is coming into the Republic and it should not. The North should ban it also. The North should deal with it.
I have answered Deputy McDonald on turf.
We dealt with it in-----
Calm down, please. Just calm down. For you this is manna from heaven. It is the great issue again. Let us have hyperbole, exaggeration and so on like that. The reality is-----
I want to clarify the final point