It would be great if Senator Wall could share the facts and figures.

There are different facts-----

To be fair, in the context of this debate, if Senator Wall has evidence contrary to what we have, perhaps today was the chance to present it.

That is fair enough. It is important that the House would know-----

I want to be very clear. The question I have before me has been very clearly debated and answered. It was to ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to explain why the Athy municipal district in County Kildare has been removed from the recently announced regional aid map. I have answered that question in great detail. I take exception if the claim is that I have not. What I am saying very clearly is that we all agree-----

With respect-----

That is a very different situation. I want to ensure what is said in the House is correct. To be clear, and in defence of my departmental officials, they have worked extremely hard on this for a long number of years. They went to great length and in detail to try to protect and get back as much area as we possibly could. If somebody says they have different evidence, I would like to see it presented.

That is fine.

I thank Senator Maria Byrne for raising this issue. I hope I have the right answer to this question because we might have misinterpreted the question here. If I have the wrong understanding of the question, I would be happy to come back with another answer. We took it from the question that the Senator was asking about the appeals board and the appeals adjudicator. If that is not the case, I can certainly come back to her with an updated position. We worked with both the Department of Health and the Department of F…

I again thank the Senator for raising this issue, which is important to all of us in both Houses who represent people who need the extra assistance to be able to avail of these supports. We are all glad that the wider review is under way. Hopefully it will change the criteria and make it possible for someone to be able to be assessed not just on the criteria that we have all been used to in recent years. I also welcome the work on that in recent months. Hopefully that will be answered quite soon. I am taking this i…

I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this issue. It is very important. We can all see the effects of inflation in costs in every part of construction throughout the country. We also want to protect the public capital investment plans we have made and rolled out under Housing for All, Project Ireland 2040 and others. There is to be a great amount of capital expenditure, over €10 billion a year, for the next ten or 11 years. It is important that we get the most out of that funding, stretch it and get the infrastruct…

I again thank Senator Gallagher for raising this matter and for clearly putting across the issues that are at play in all of our counties and certainly in the Border region. I will certainly take a look at what he has said is happening across the Border. To be very clear, while this is not my direct area of responsibility, I will raise this matter with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and his Department. He would have liked to be here himself but just could not make it. I acknowledge that what Senator…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, on this Sinn Féin motion on the rising cost of home heating fuels and to respond to some of the issues that were raised in the debate. Sinn Féin has expressed the view that the May carbon tax increase should be cancelled, excise duty on home heating oil should be temporarily removed and plans to regulate the sale of turf should be scrapped. I have listened carefully to the debate this evening and will take this opportunity to …

Let us not generalise. There are many urban areas that also need regeneration. It is welcome that capital expenditure funding of €10 billion is available to be channelled into rural and urban regeneration throughout the country to enhance different areas and allow them to go on and develop. There are some parts of the country that have been neglected for 30 or 40 years and investment is needed in them. However, for Deputies to come in here constantly and say in these debates that rural Ireland is on its knees is an…

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae did not say it. Others, who live in urban Ireland, did. We need to be clear about this. There are people here talking about cutting turf who I would say never were on a bog. I can tell them, with the back problems I have, that I have spent time on a bog. I know all about it. Some Deputies have that experience but there are plenty of people speaking here who probably never were on a bog, footed turf and brought it home but who claim to be experts just because this issue is popular. Let us ha…

Deputy Healy-Rae-----

If I speak fast, I know we can read fast and listen fast. What I said is that nobody has said we are banning the saving or cutting of turf.

No. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae is after speaking about what I said. What I said to him was that we are looking at regulating the sale of turf, not stopping the cutting or sale of turf. The Deputy should check the record of what I said before accusing me of saying something wrong.

Going back to the various parts of the motion that relate to fuel tax, it is important to remind the House that the driving forces behind the current energy prices are generally outside of the control of the Government, and most reasonable people understand and accept that. We have to work within that and try to reduce the cost pressures on people. This point has been discussed at length in recent weeks. I have made it clear that there are limitations to what the Government can do in its response, but we will certa…

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this issue. As I am aware that she raised it in the autumn as well, it is timely to provide the Deputy with an update. The Climate Action Plan 2021 requires my Department to review the Government statement on the role of data centres in enterprise policy, ensuring alignment with revised renewable electricity targets and sectoral emissions ceilings. The revised statement will set out the existing policy context and reflect the important economic and societal role of data services …