Results 1-20 of 2,310 for speaker:Richard O'Donoghue

Cost of Motoring: Motion [Private Members] (12 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: I will start with insurance and insurance fraud. Insurance fraud is being paid for by all the rest of the people who are trying to get insured. Let us say a person is trying to insure their vehicle in Limerick, Tipperary, Cork or Clare. If we look at the same vehicle across the different counties, it seems to be the insurance rates are higher where the cities are. We did a small synopsis...

Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage (12 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: Hear, hear.

Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage (12 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: I am going to start with the auto-enrolment pension scheme. A pension scheme is good if it is introduced at the right time. To get down to brass tacks, for those who do not know, auto-enrolment means 1.5% for an employer and 1.5% for an employee. After six months, the employee can opt out of the 1.5% if he or she does not want to pay it. Is there any extra benefit for somebody in their...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: I raise UHL. We will start off on a positive note. The Minister opened the 96-bed unit in UHL on 13 October. We waited a year and a half for the HIQA report but we have it now. It states exactly what I and others have been saying here for years about UHL. It came out with an A, B and C plan. My view is we need A, B and to work for C. Option A would involve expanding the capacity at...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: That is right.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: I thank the Tánaiste. It is unusual we are 100% agreed on both sides of the House that this needs to happen. This is a health emergency and under Covid guidelines we were led to do an awful lot of things under health emergencies. We had John Wall with us yesterday as a patient safety advocate. We have an emergency. Why can we not use emergency powers and legislate that this happen...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: I thank the Minister. Again, we are talking about health. The other side of things is that given the number of wind turbines that have been pushed through planning at the moment, it is not about wind energy. Cian Murtagh is a lecturer in Sligo and he has looked at Ireland’s energy mix. For the month of October, we paid €115 million in curtailment costs and over €300...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: Offshore.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: But we need offshore.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: 81. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will acknowledge that the High Court has now ruled in multiple cases that wind turbine noise can constitute a nuisance, even where developments are compliant with planning conditions; and his plans to ensure that Ireland’s regulatory framework adequately protects affected residents. [60859/25]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: At the outset, I am not against wind energy. I am against the health implications of wind energy. Will the Minister acknowledge that the High Court has now ruled in multiple cases that wind turbine noise can constitute a nuisance, even where developments are compliant with planning conditions, and confirm the specific advice the Department received from the Office of the Attorney General in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: How many High Court judgments will it take before the Government accepts that wind noise is causing health implications? People and communities in Limerick are taking up their own alliances because of the health implications where wind turbines are put up. Wind turbine planning applications are being lodged at a massive rate. The wind turbines that have gone up to date never involved...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Renewable Energy Generation (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: 126. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reason his Department departed from the Government's original implementation plan for the Accelerated Renewable Electricity Taskforce (ARET), and instead based the National Territory Renewable Energy Mapping policy on outdated County Development Plan wind energy maps; and the reasons for this change in approach....

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Service Executive (6 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: 474. To ask the Minister for Health the status of two planning applications to the HSE (details supplied); whether the HSE received a notification of the planning application; the planning appeal; if so, the date of notification and the body that issued the notification; whether the HSE made a submission to the planning and/or appeal; and, if so, the date of any such submission; in tabular...

Decriminalisation of People Who Use Drugs: Motion [Private Members] (5 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: Nobody wants to see people with addiction punished while the dealers get rich. In Limerick, Sr. Concilio in Cuan Mhuire has done an amazing job trying to help people with addiction. The centre has opened a farm and a garden centre to reintroduce people into the workplace. She has done brilliant work. A former hurler from Limerick, Ciaran Carey, has counselling services doing the same,...

Decriminalisation of People Who Use Drugs: Motion [Private Members] (5 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: It is not and putting out such a statement about Limerick does not help.

Decriminalisation of People Who Use Drugs: Motion [Private Members] (5 Nov 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: Sorry, we are here to help people. Branding Limerick like that is not nice. We are here to help people all the time, and Deputy Sheehan should not say such things. The whole country has a drug problem. Naming one place by itself is not right

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Oct 2025)

Richard O'Donoghue: I have some great friends with me today. I have been involved in Greybridge classic club for the past 15 years. The youngest member, Louise Crowley, is in the Gallery and she is the Limerick IFA chairperson - the youngest chairperson in the organisation. She has been a member of the club since it started and is also its secretary. The Macra na Feirme president and the outgoing president,...