Nine TDs travelled to Taiwan in 2025, almost a quarter of the 38 foreign trips declared in the latest Dáil Register of Members’ Interests.
In total, 21 TDs listed trips in the “travel facilities” category in the register with other destinations including Qatar, the United States and Ukraine.
TDs must disclose travel provided to them free of charge or at less than commercial prices over a threshold of €650.
What is disclosed in the register is not a comprehensive record of travel by TDs.
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They are not required to declare travel on Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) business or as part of work with other specified bodies.
Similarly, Ministers do not have to declare trips they make in the course of official duties.
China claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as Chinese territory.
Along with the European Union, Ireland adheres to a One China Policy which recognises the People’s Republic of China as the legal representative of China and means there are no diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The policy does not preclude the development of economic, cultural and people-to-people connections with Taiwan.
Fine Gael TD Barry Ward and Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne both declared a July 2025 trip to Taiwan.
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Ward said his travel was paid for by the Taipei Representative Office. He said he has been “a long-time advocate against the One China Policy” and he criticised Chinese threats against the island. Ward said he is an “active promoter of Taiwanese rights” adding the trip was “very informative”. The Irish politicians met the Taiwanese president and other senior figures as well as engaging with the island’s tech industry.
Labour TD George Lawlor was among a group of Oireachtas members that travelled to Taiwan last November. They also met senior Taiwanese government figures and Lawlor said they attended a conference on the security of undersea cables that “opened our eyes to the various potential threats there could be in the European context as well”.
Other TDs who declared travel to Taiwan in 2025 were Michael Cahill, Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere, Pádraig O’Sullivan and Erin McGreehan of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael TD Catherine Callaghan, and Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn.
Cleere and McGreehan, along with their Fianna Fáil colleague James O’Connor also declared a working visit to the Doha Forum in Qatar.
Eight Labour Party TDs collectively declared 18 trips, with party leader Ivana Bacik and housing spokesman Conor Sheehan listing five each.
Bacik declared a parliamentary party visit to the European Parliament in Brussels and an Irish Institute Conference in Boston College among her trips.
Sheehan’s travel included going to the UK Labour Party’s conference in Liverpool and a “housing study visit to Vienna”.
Another Labour TD Rob O’Donoghue attended a Party of European Socialists summit in war-torn Ukraine.
A Labour Party statement said it has increased its interaction with European sister parties after the election of Dublin MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and in advance of Ireland’s EU presidency later this year.
It said: “The greater number, and increased costs of trips due to higher accommodation and flight prices has taken more of these engagements above the declaration threshold of €650.”
It said that the Labour Party and European affiliates “in most cases cover the costs for TDs and Senators to attend these meetings”.
The party added: “Travel by Opposition members to attend European meetings such as these with sister parties, paid for by the Party or other European body, is not covered by the exclusions in the ethics guidelines under Travel Facilities” like those covering ministers and inter-parliamentary visits.
