I agree that a delay of that nature is not acceptable. I do not know the details, but I hope that the person affected is doing okay and the delay did not impact adversely on his health. The Minister for Health is not in the Dáil today but I will let him know that the issue was raised and ask him to contact the Deputy directly.

I am afraid I cannot give the Deputy a timeline for publication, but we intend to publish it soon. It was done before Christmas and party leaders and senior Ministers have it and have been briefed on it, so it would be appropriate that the committee should see it soon. The big dilemma is what to do with the TV licence and what model might work best. We need to think that through. I hear the Deputy, though, in that it should not have taken us this long to get the report published. We will try to get that done in the…

I thank the Deputy. We have spoken a number of times about the impact of high fuel prices on hauliers and road transport operators and also on the agricultural sector. I will ask the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, to come back to the Deputy with a little more detail, but in regard to the fuel rebate for hauliers, we are providing a grant of €100 per truck in addition to the fuel rebate. In addition, a week or so ago we reduced the excise on green diesel and marked gas oil by about 2 cent per litre. Again, I …

I thank the Deputy. As a Government, we acknowledge the massive increase in input costs for farmers and how that is affecting their bottom line. A few weeks ago, we announced funding for pig farmers as part of a scheme to help that sector. As the Deputy will know, we have had a pro rata reduction in the cost of green diesel. Today, the Government made a decision to incentivise farmers to grow more grain by way of a €10 million tillage incentive scheme that will encourage them to grow more barley, oats and wheat. A …

With regard to Deputy Paul Murphy's comments, what P&O Ferries has done to its staff is appalling. I am glad that those who are employed under Irish law could not be treated in this way and have not been. I understand that some Irish seafarers who are based in other jurisdictions are affected. What P&O Ferries has done is wrong. I understand that the UK Government is examining this to see if what the company has done is legal. There may well be a legal remedy to this. I note that the union concerned, RMT, backed Br…

I welcome Deputy Conway-Walsh to the leader's seat. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to engage with another member of Sinn Féin, particularly one from Erris, a part of the country I know well. It is always a pleasure to have a disagreement or an agreement on occasion with people from that part of the world. The situation in Ukraine is, as people will appreciate, unprecedented. We came through the shock of a pandemic that nobody could have predicted and thought we were going to enter a period of relat…

We believe that our energy supplies are secure, or as secure as they can be in the current context. We used Russian coal to run the power station at Moneypoint. That has now been switched over to Colombian coal. We are not dependent on Russia or Ukraine for gas. Approximately one quarter or one third of our gas comes from the Corrib - it is our own gas - and the rest comes from the UK. The latter is gas from the North Sea and liquified natural gas, LNG, brought through terminals in the UK. We are confident at this …

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to Deputy Kelly on the role he has played in recent years as leader of the Labour Party and as a Minister in a previous Government. Some people will say that the Labour Party has struggled to overcome its period in government. Quite frankly, however, it has a lot to be proud of when it comes to the period it spent in government between 2011 to 2016, which was a very difficult time. In the early part of that Government's term, as the Deputy will recall, I was the senior Ministe…

In the past few moments, the Minister for Health's office has confirmed that Committee Stage of the Bill will be taken next week. This will allow us to make progress. There are some changes the Minister wants to make. Some of them follow on from the examination Dr. Scally did on this matter and the civil liability amendment situation and some input from members of the 221+ support group. The plan is for it to move to Committee Stage next week. It is not entirely within the control of the Government as to how long t…

I echo and agree with the Deputy's remarks on at least two accounts. The first is that we all admire the bravery of the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian people who are resisting this attack and this attempt to take over and occupy their country. Even with regard to a city like Kharkiv, which is near the Russian border, in which most people are Russian speakers and in which there is, in many ways, a dual identity, Putin has made a big mistake. If anything, he has cemented and strengthened the Ukrainian nationa…

I thank the Deputy. Far too many people in the west, including many western European governments, turned a blind eye to President Putin for too long. We saw that after the Crimea crisis. That sent a message to him that the west was weak and I would say he started making his plans around about then to take the rest of Ukraine. However, it is not just about governments or government ministers. Anyone who has expressed pro-Putin sentiments or who has been an apologist for Putin now has questions to answer. There are a…

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet the six main farming organisations in Government Buildings. We organised the meeting as a regular round table to talk about Brexit, Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform and climate action. As the Deputy can imagine and as is often the case, events overtake us. Most of the meeting was about Ukraine, the cost of inputs, the rising cost of fuel and fertiliser, and how that will impact food prices and farm incomes. This afternoon at 2 o'clock the Taoiseach will chair a specia…

It is for both, actually.

It seems that one of the problems with the planting is that while licences are being issued, not all are being used.

As an aside regarding forestry, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is working on a new scheme to allow farmers to plant small plantations of trees. It is very small, but still significant if everyone does it. We would like to see farmers using a small part of their land for small plantations, ideally with native broadleaf trees. She is introducing that and allowing them to avoid the existing licensing system for doing that. I believe MARA will be up and running much sooner than in two years' time. Hopefully, i…

I am afraid I do not have an update on the Dean Maxwell nursing home. I sought one before coming here, but it was not available. I will have that sent directly to the Deputy.

I am not aware of that particular vote. As the Deputy knows, councillors act in a quasi-judicial manner when making decisions on their plan. I will certainly make inquiries. It would be unusual for Fine Gael to vote against or oppose housing. Quite frankly, that is more the Deputy's party's form than ours but I will certainly check it out.

The report was stark, and I would welcome a debate on it in the House if that could be arranged through the Business Committee. The report probably did not get the attention it deserved because of the other world events happening at the moment. It says two things to us as a country. It reminds us not only that we need to press ahead and implement our climate action plan but also, even if we do fully implement our plan, that we share an environment with a world of 10 billion people and that many countries will not d…

We will have to give some thought to that. The shock to our economy and to energy prices as a result of the invasion of Ukraine was not anticipated but it has happened and we have to deal with it. The Government is very aware of the impact this will have on households in the form of higher energy bills for motorists, farmers, businesspeople and the haulage sector. We knew prices would rise over time, as they did, but I do not think anyone anticipated a further shock right after the pandemic in the way it has occurr…

I am afraid I do not have any information on the detail of that appointment, but I will ask my office to liaise with the Department of Health and to provide the Deputy with a written reply. I know that the HSE's national service plan published the other day provides additional funding to help patients with long Covid. I do not know how that translates into particular posts in particular hospitals, but I will ask my office to get a written reply to the Deputy.