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DEBATES

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DÁIL ÉIREANN

Official Report latest update:

Thu, 2 May 2024: 38 topics were published, which include 115 speakers and 0
divisions of the House.

 * Read this debate
 * Watch Dáil debates
 * Browse Dáil debates


SEANAD ÉIREANN

Official Report latest update:

Thu, 2 May 2024: 10 topics were published, which include 18 speakers and 0
divisions of the House.

 * Read this debate
 * Watch Seanad debates
 * Browse Seanad debates


COMMITTEES

Official Report latest update:

Meeting of the Committee Of Public Accounts on Thu, 2 May 2024.

 * Read this debate
 * Watch committee debates
 * Browse Committee debates


PQS (QUESTIONS)

Official Report latest update:

Thu, 2 May 2024: 315 Parliamentary Questions answered.

 * Read parliamentary questions


DEBATES SEARCH

Find:
In: all debates Dáil Éireann debates Seanad Éireann debates Committee debates
Parliamentary Questions
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So far in 2024, the Debates Office has reported 7,623,627 words across 38
forums.

Total word count for Joint Committee on Assisted Dying in 2024 is 68,715 words
over 4 meetings.Joint Committee on Assisted Dying68,715Total word count for Dáil
Éireann in 2024 is 2,488,136 words over 33 meetings.Dáil Éireann2,488,136Total
word count for Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media in
2024 is 165,526 words over 6 meetings.Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts,
Sport and Media165,526Total word count for Joint Committee on Social Protection,
Community and Rural Development and the Islands in 2024 is 176,411 words over 9
meetings.Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development
and the Islands176,411Total word count for Joint Committee on Finance, Public
Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach in 2024 is 103,380 words over 6
meetings.Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and
Taoiseach103,380Total word count for Joint Committee on European Union Affairs
in 2024 is 71,015 words over 6 meetings.Joint Committee on European Union
Affairs71,015Total word count for Committee on Budgetary Oversight in 2024 is
81,294 words over 8 meetings.Committee on Budgetary Oversight81,294Total word
count for Joint Committee on Disability Matters in 2024 is 169,765 words over 9
meetings.Joint Committee on Disability Matters169,765Total word count for Joint
Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine in 2024 is 257,193 words over 13
meetings.Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine257,193Total word
count for Select Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment in 2024 is 40,345
words over 3 meetings.Select Committee on Enterprise, Trade and
Employment40,345Total word count for Joint Committee on Health in 2024 is
170,016 words over 8 meetings.Joint Committee on Health170,016Total word count
for Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in 2024
is 83,692 words over 7 meetings.Joint Committee on the Implementation of the
Good Friday Agreement83,692Total word count for Committee of Public Accounts in
2024 is 317,005 words over 12 meetings.Committee of Public Accounts317,005Total
word count for Seanad Éireann in 2024 is 1,069,464 words over 26 meetings.Seanad
Éireann1,069,464Total word count for Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and
Defence in 2024 is 65,974 words over 5 meetings.Joint Committee on Foreign
Affairs and Defence65,974Total word count for Joint Committee on Housing, Local
Government and Heritage in 2024 is 124,835 words over 5 meetings.Joint Committee
on Housing, Local Government and Heritage124,835Total word count for Joint
Committee on Environment and Climate Action in 2024 is 128,422 words over 10
meetings.Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action128,422Total word
count for Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research,
Innovation and Science in 2024 is 110,554 words over 6 meetings.Joint Committee
on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and
Science110,554Total word count for Joint Committee on Transport and
Communications in 2024 is 112,934 words over 5 meetings.Joint Committee on
Transport and Communications112,934Total word count for Joint Committee on
Enterprise, Trade and Employment in 2024 is 109,667 words over 8 meetings.Joint
Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment109,667Total word count for Select
Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands
in 2024 is 28,465 words over 2 meetings.Select Committee on Social Protection,
Community and Rural Development and the Islands28,465Total word count for
Comhchoiste na Gaeilge, na Gaeltachta agus Phobal Labhartha na Gaeilge in 2024
is 167,859 words over 9 meetings.Comhchoiste na Gaeilge, na Gaeltachta agus
Phobal Labhartha na Gaeilge167,859Total word count for Select Committee on
Health in 2024 is 121,752 words over 5 meetings.Select Committee on
Health121,752Total word count for Select Committee on Finance, Public
Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach in 2024 is 69,331 words over 4
meetings.Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and
Taoiseach69,331Total word count for Joint Committee on Public Petitions and the
Ombudsmen in 2024 is 95,490 words over 7 meetings.Joint Committee on Public
Petitions and the Ombudsmen95,490Total word count for Select Committee on
Justice in 2024 is 11,248 words over 1 meetings.Select Committee on
Justice11,248Total word count for Select Committee on Children, Equality,
Disability, Integration and Youth in 2024 is 7,033 words over 1 meetings.Select
Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth7,033Total
word count for Select Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education,
Research, Innovation and Science in 2024 is 28,821 words over 2 meetings.Select
Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and
Science28,821Total word count for Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the
Marine in 2024 is 13,390 words over 1 meetings.Select Committee on Agriculture,
Food and the Marine13,390Total word count for Select Committee on Foreign
Affairs and Defence in 2024 is 31,764 words over 1 meetings.Select Committee on
Foreign Affairs and Defence31,764Total word count for Joint Committee on Key
Issues affecting the Traveller Community (2023) in 2024 is 100,972 words over 5
meetings.Joint Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community
(2023)100,972Total word count for Select Committee on Transport and
Communications in 2024 is 22,371 words over 2 meetings.Select Committee on
Transport and Communications22,371Total word count for Roghchoiste na Gaeilge,
na Gaeltachta agus Phobal Labhartha na Gaeilge in 2024 is 3,501 words over 1
meetings.Roghchoiste na Gaeilge, na Gaeltachta agus Phobal Labhartha na
Gaeilge3,501Total word count for Select Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts,
Sport and Media in 2024 is 15,971 words over 1 meetings.Select Committee on
Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media15,971Total word count for Joint
Committee on Justice in 2024 is 97,613 words over 4 meetings.Joint Committee on
Justice97,613Total word count for Joint Committee on Children, Equality,
Disability, Integration and Youth in 2024 is 77,190 words over 4 meetings.Joint
Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth77,190Total
word count for Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage in
2024 is 728,661 words over 22 meetings.Select Committee on Housing, Local
Government and Heritage728,661Total word count for Seanad Public Consultation
Committee in 2024 is 87,852 words over 2 meetings.Seanad Public Consultation
Committee87,852


MOST RECENT VOTE

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024:
Committee Stage

Amendment put:

[01 May 2024]

 * Tá (3 votes cast)
 * Níl (6 votes cast)


DECLARED

Lost

View vote details

 * See all votes


ABOUT THE OFFICIAL REPORT

When are debates published?

Dáil debates are published incrementally throughout a sitting day. All
proceedings before 7 p.m. are published before midnight and the remainder are
published the following day.

Seanad debates are published incrementally throughout a sitting day, with any
remaining proceedings published the following day.

The Official Report of each committee meeting is generally published within two
or three working days of a sitting but this can depend on the number and length
of committee meetings in any given week.

Replies to questions tabled by Members on a particular day for written response
by Ministers are generally published within two working days.

What are parliamentary debates?

The "Official Report" of parliamentary debates is the report of Dáil, Seanad and
committees proceedings.

It is a principle of parliamentary democracy that proceedings should be held in
public and that a record should be published.

The Official Report is the authoritative record of public proceedings of the
Houses of the Oireachtas and parliamentary committees. It includes oral and
written parliamentary questions. Standing Orders of the Houses of the Oireachtas
state that a debate for each sitting should be published.

On occasion, special editions of the Official Report are published to mark an
event or occasion, such as the centenary in 2019 of the first sitting of Dáil
Éireann on 21 January 1919 or the address by President John F. Kennedy on 28
June 1963. 

Where can I find the Official Report?

The Official Report from 1919 to the present day can be found in our repository
of parliamentary debates. Debate searches may also be refined by House, such as
Dáil and Seanad, and by committee.

There is also a searchable record of divisions, or votes, taken in the Houses or
committees. Parliamentary questions may also be searched or explored visually. 

Printed bound volumes of Dáil and Seanad debates are also produced and may be
found in copyright libraries.

Is the Official Report a verbatim account?

The Official Report is a complete and impartial report of the contributions of
all speakers; it is substantially but not strictly verbatim because it is
accepted that the spoken word must be lightly edited for a readership rather
than a listenership.

Parliamentary reporting often follows the guideline from Erskine May, which
defines what the debates of parliament are and are not:

The Official Report is a full report in the first person, of all speakers alike,
a full report being defined as one which, though not strictly verbatim, is
substantially a verbatim report, with repetitions and redundancies omitted and
with obvious mistakes corrected, but which on the other hand leaves out nothing
that adds to the meaning of the speech or illustrates the argument.

What is the role of the Debates Office?

The Debates Office has responsibility for producing the Official Report.

The Debates Office is led by the Chief Reporter and Editor of Debates and a team
of deputy editors, assistant editors, parliamentary reporters and administrative
staff. Parliamentary reporters are recruited by the Public Appointments Service
in open competitions. Many of our staff hold postgraduate qualifications,
including to PhD level.

The office recruits two panels, one of which is English only and one of which is
bilingual – Gaeilge and English – to ensure expertise in Irish and English.

HOW IS THE OFFICIAL REPORT PRODUCED?

From the founding of the State, reporters used shorthand and dictated the report
to a team of typists, after which the report was sent to external printers for
publication. This process of reporting changed in 1993 and proceedings are now
recorded digitally and produced and published by Debates Office staff on the
Oireachtas website.

On a typical day, one team of reporters is assigned to the Dáil and another to
the Seanad and committees. Members of each team will take turns to spend ten
minutes in the Chamber and keep a log of speakers and business transacted. They
will then return to their workstations and, using the digital sound file,
produce the report of those ten minutes. The work is then edited, collated and
published by the editorial team.

Take a deeper dive by looking at a day in the life of the Debates Office.

Citing the Official Report

HISTORICAL CITATION

Historical debates were originally published in physical daily books of debate
and bound volumes, which had column numbers used for citation purposes. Using
the Harvard style of referencing, for example, the Official Report may be cited
as follows for a debate from 2005:

McGrath, Paul, Dáil Debates, Vol. 600, No. 5, cols. 1602-1604, 20 April 2005

(Speaker, Debate volume and book No., Column Nos., Date of speech)

COLUMN REFERENCES

Column references in digitised and online versions of the Official Report were
retained until 2012, when the practice of including column references online
ceased. Column or page numbers are still available for citation purposes in
bound volumes on publication or in the electronic PDF version of daily debates
published online, which are usually available on the table of contents page of
each daily debate. If the PDF is unavailable for historical debates, it may be
possible to retrieve column reference data on our archived site of Oireachtas
debates.

CITATION OF THE ONLINE OFFICIAL REPORT

The Official Report is published online in the first instance, usually on the
same sitting day or soon afterwards. If no column or page reference is
available, the debate may be referenced in line with style for an online
resource. Using the Harvard style of referencing, for example, the Official
Report may be cited as follows for a debate from 2024:


McDonald, M.L., (2024), Dáil Debates (Unrevised), [online], 21 February 2024,
Available
at: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2024-02-21/speech/65/
(accessed 22 February 2024)

(Surname(s), Initial(s). (Year of publication), [House or Committee type]
Debates (Unrevised), [online], date. Available at: website address (accessed
date)

OPEN DATA

The redevelopment of the Oireachtas website involved a thorough review of the
data formats being published on our website with a view to aligning to
international standards. All debates data have been aligned to the Akoma Ntoso
international XML standard for parliamentary data, ensuring users of our open
data APIs can work with valid, structured data.

Every debate is published in an XML format, such as this example, with a uniform
taxonomy, as the basis for publication to the web and in hard copy. With our
open data APIs, users can access datasets relating to debates, divisions (votes)
and parliamentary questions, among other resources, in a machine-readable
format.


A DAY IN THE LIFE | DEBATES

In producing the Official Report they work with many other sections in
the Service, taking in committees, parliamentary questions and political staff.

Parliamentary reporter Cian Fitzsimons describes a typical day for him in
Leinster House reporting the debate in Dáil Éireann.

 * Take a look at a day in the life of the Debates Office


OFFICIAL REPORT | VOL.1000

Since 1922, the Debates Office has been tasked with producing and publishing the
Official Report of Oireachtas proceedings, including the physical bound volumes
of debate.

Take a closer look at the Official Report as the office reaches a milestone in
the production of its bound volumes.

 * Check out the journey to Vol. 1000


UTTERANCES HAVING AN ADVERSE EFFECT

If you consider that you have been adversely affected by an utterance in the
Dáil, Seanad or an Oireachtas Committee, there is a process you can follow to
address this.

 * Find out more


DÁIL AND SEANAD TERMS

The 33nd Dáil first met on 20 February 2020. The 26th Seanad met for the first
time on 29 June 2020.

Get the start and end dates of all the Dáil and Seanad terms since the
foundation of the State.

 * Find out more

Notable Debates


MOTHER AND CHILD SCHEME, 12 APRIL 1951

“The Hierarchy has informed the Government that they must regard the mother and
child scheme proposed by me as opposed to Catholic social teaching.”

 

- Dr. Noel Browne

 * Read the debate
 * See more notable debates

Notable Debates


THE ARMS CRISIS, 7 MAY 1970

“I received information that an attempt had been made involving a number of
members of the Government illegally to import a large consignment of arms from
the continent for use by an illegal organisation.”

- Liam Cosgrave

 * Read the debate
 * See more notable debates

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