I will ask Bus Éireann to take a further look at this. The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton, announced that from Monday, 21 February 2022 the age at which an applicant for a driving licence must supply a medical report is going to increase from 70 to 75. Drivers under 75 will no longer have to supply a medical report confirming their fitness to drive unless they have an identified or specified illness or are required to do so by law. In addition, drivers aged 70 and over may continu…

Deputy McGrath must be the one who is out of touch if he needs an ESRI report this morning to tell him that we have a cost-of-living crisis.

Anybody filling their car with petrol or diesel would have known that for months.

Anyone looking at their utility bills over the past couple of months would know that. They would know we are facing a cost-of-living crisis, that we have high inflation and that it is largely driven by energy prices.

On interest rates, the Deputy knows the answer to this. We have higher interest rates in Ireland relative to other countries and there are three reasons for that. They have higher bank charges than we do. In those countries they have bigger markets so there is more competition, and also in Ireland, for very good reasons, we make it very hard to repossess properties and evict people-----

-----which means often debts go unpaid for years and years. The truth is that the cost of that is socialised.

We are very aware of the risk of famine that now arises from the food security issues that have been thrown up by Putin's invasion of Ukraine. I attended talks in Geneva earlier this week where this was very much on the agenda for trade ministers. On our humanitarian response, I am not sure exactly what is planned. I know that we have something planned through our overseas development aid budget but I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Brophy, to come back to the Deputy on that with a bit more detail.

We need to do everything possible to accelerate the number of new homes being built. As I said earlier, it is accelerating. Some 25,000 new homes were built in the past 12 months, 35,000 are under construction and 45,000 are going through planning. One can really see that pipeline coming through. It took us a while to get there, and we are still only getting there, but it is coming through. There are more things that need to be done to speed it up. The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and the Minister, Deputy Darra…

I say to these businesses that we understand the pressures they are under. This is why we reduced excise and took 20 cent off petrol and 15 cent off diesel, but unfortunately we do not control those prices as they are internationally determined. This is why we put in place the 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector, which is particularly important given the tourism hot spot that Cork south west is. That will run into next year. It is also why we reduced the VAT on electricity and gas to 9%, which is the lowest it h…

I do not think there is any one single way that is best to help working families or middle-income people with the cost of living. There are a number of different ways. I have never been in favour of just one solution or saying there is just one solution to these challenges. Obviously, one way is through pay. This is why we increased the minimum wage this year and why I announced just this week plans to introduce a living wage. This is why we are currently in discussions with public servants around pay increases for…

On the critical skills permits, we could certainly examine that. This falls under the responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy English, but obviously, he reports to me. This is something we could definitely examine.

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues, which are important to people in Cavan and public transport users in particular. I do not have any information to hand but I will make sure the Minister for Transport knows the matter was raised in the Dáil and will ask him to contact the Deputy directly.

That legislation is being drafted at the moment. I cannot give a definite timeline but the intention is to have that done before the summer recess so we can implement the measure this year. Reducing or abolishing out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare is an important part of Sláintecare. Abolishing inpatient hospital charges for children is an important step in that direction and I hope we can extend that to the abolition of inpatient charges for adults in the future as well.

These are budget matters and decisions will be made on them in the run-up to the budget in October. The programme for Government provides for a tax package every year, agreed by all three parties in the coalition. Therefore, there will be a tax package in the forthcoming budget. We just have to decide how best to do it. It should be targeted at middle-income earners, as the Deputy has said. There are other things we can do, such as reducing childcare costs, which middle-income families spend a lot of money on. We a…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I understand the strong case that is being made to extend the short-hop zone. My colleague Councillor Sharon Tolan has been leading the charge on this. Her argument is that if Kilcoole in County Wicklow, which is 55 km south of the centre of Dublin, is in the short-hop zone, Laytown, Bettystown and Drogheda should also be included in that zone. That is a strong case. We need to assess the cost and see if other areas fall into the same category. For example, some towns in K…

I am not familiar with that individual case but I will certainly check it out with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I can unequivocally say to the Deputy that I am opposed to the death penalty. This Government is opposed to the death penalty and we call on any country that still has it on its statute books, including Saudi Arabia, to desist and not to execute any of their citizens under any circumstances.

I am not sure whether the Government has made a formal decision on this matter. We need to give consideration to the fact that we will continue to need to use natural gas as a fuel for the next number of decades. We just signed off the other day on a major investment in new power plants, which we need, and those power plants will be using natural gas in the main. While natural gas is a fossil fuel and contributes to climate change, it is much better than coal and oil. There are some decisions that have to be teased…

I am very pleased to introduce the Sick Leave Bill to the Seanad today. The Bill has completed its passage through the Dáil, and I am keen to have it enacted before the summer recess. This Bill creates a new workers' right in Ireland. For the first time, employees will be entitled to statutory sick pay from their employers. It is one of five new workers' rights I am establishing this year. The other four include, first, the establishment of a new public holiday, which from next year will be at the start of February…

I thank the Senators for their contributions, which are very welcome. Senator Dolan asked whether we could review the impact of this in a few years' time. This would be good practice. We had intended to do so anyway. The first or second year might be too soon but perhaps it could be done in the third or fourth year. I am happy to make that commitment. I thank Senator Craughwell for his kind remarks. The issue of class K contributions is not fully resolved. It has been resolved for councillors but not yet for office…

I thank the Deputy for the question. At the outset, I acknowledge that Ireland, and the entire world, is facing a cost-of-living crisis driven by inflation, which is largely caused by international factors beyond our control, as the Deputy acknowledged. The cost of everything is going up and the cost of very little is going down. People can see that in their utility bills, when they go to the petrol station to fill up their tanks with petrol or diesel and in their grocery bills. A lot of families are struggling and…