This is a falsehood that you are presenting.
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
This is a falsehood that you are presenting.
With the greatest of respect, it is an absolute falsehood you are presenting.
You need-----
I am speaking through the Chair. He is shouting across.
But I cannot.
I am entitled to pose a rhetorical question as a form of debate.
I would make the point. I know the Deputy was involved in the protests-----
-----and I know he took a role and so on like that, and he was deciding who was going to get all, and who was going to get-----
-----which I do not agree with, but-----
I want to ask you------
Deputy, what I will say to you-----
Finally, through the Chair, I have worked with the Deputy before. He is doing a lot of shouting and roaring here today in the Chamber. He has asked me about different things in the past, plenty of times, as a Dáil Deputy, and I have responded to him. I treated him courteously. All I am saying is that I have no difficulty discussing with the Deputy at any time.
I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue for first-time buyers. The entire focus of this Government and the last Government is and was very much on alleviating pressures on first-time buyers but also enabling them to be in a position to buy houses at an affordable level. The positive news is that as a result of measures we have taken, the numbers of first-time buyers drawing down mortgages have increased very significantly as a percentage of overall mortgages over the past five years. It is qui…
Certainly, and as the Deputy said, help-to-buy is probably the most significant intervention we have taken in the last number of years. We will, at Government level, give consideration to this issue, and to whether there is anything further we can do to help alleviate the pressures on first-time buyers, particularly in terms of the application of stamp duty.
As I said earlier to Deputy Bacik, who raised this issue on Leaders' Questions, we are extremely concerned about this issue of forged letters, which is completely unacceptable and very serious for the care of young people who are taken into care. The numbers referred to Tusla have expanded to an extraordinary degree, which reflects wider issues within society of different kinds. We have substantially increased the current and capital funding, doubling capital funding and so forth. The recruitment of qualified staff…
I know the Deputy has raised this on a number of occasions and I commend the survivors on the work they are doing. It is very courageous. We do not have access to the State Department files at all but we would encourage the full release of all documentation and files in relation to Jeffrey Epstein and, if there are files referencing Ireland, that those would be released.
I will discuss it with the Minister for justice again. I also received a very late request to meet, when I was in Washington. It was very late in the day that I received that request. People said I did not bother meeting. I will say no more. I can talk to the Deputy about this but the Government has no files. To our knowledge, there is nothing in the Department of justice and so on. I will discuss with the Deputy what mechanisms there are to do this.
I take a different perspective in terms of how the Deputy put it. I do not think the State today or the Government today is complicit in anything that happened over 50 years ago and right throughout that period. I actually do not. It is easy language to throw out there or to say that we are ignoring-----
Personally, I think what happened is reprehensible. I have never understood it. What happened in earlier eras is that the poor homes evolved into the county homes, which evolved into the mother and baby homes. Some people-----
The Deputy knows the Minister is bringing in six substantial-----