All of us in the House value the work of secretarial assistants. That is true on a cross-party basis. I will certainly mention to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform that Deputy O'Reilly raised the matter and I will pass on the request she has made. I am not sure to what extent it is an issue for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission more than the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I believe the commission is the employer but I will check that with the Minister.

I thank the Deputy. I appreciate this is an important issue but it is probably more a matter for local government than for central government. I will certainly let the Minister with responsibility for local government know that the Deputy raised the matter.

I am aware of a number of closures in urban areas, including in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area. The Deputy has raised the issue before, as has Deputy Carroll MacNeill. It is not so much that An Post or the Government ever decides to close a post office, it is more the case that when the postmaster retires, it can often be difficult to find somebody who is willing to take on the role. The policy of Government is clear that certainly within urban areas, nobody should be more than 5 km away from a post office. That i…

As part of the remote working strategy, the Government committed to legislating to give workers the right to request remote working. Responsibility for that legislation now falls to me and the Minister of State, Deputy English. We intend to have heads of the Bill - the general scheme - published in this parliamentary session and the legislation itself published in the first quarter of next year, with a view to enactment.

I can certainly see how products held up in customs could be a real difficulty for businesses. That is a matter for Revenue rather than for me. If the Deputy wants to pass me on more details, I can get my office to make inquiries with the Revenue Commissioners and see can we get the Deputy a better response.

I am not aware of any such decision by the HSE board, but the Deputy may well be correct. My strong view has always been that if the emergency department in a hospital is going to be closed or have its hours reduced, then there is a need to be absolutely sure there is sufficient capacity in other hospitals in the region and that the ambulance service is able to deal with the situation. As I have said, I am not aware of that decision by the board of the HSE, if such a decision has been made. I have just mentioned it…

I thank the Deputy. The Government absolutely acknowledges that we have a severe shortage of student accommodation across the country and that for very many students it is unaffordable while for others it is unavailable. There are many reasons for that. Some are long-standing, some relate to Covid and some relate to the big increase in the number of people attending third level education, which we all welcome. We have a student accommodation strategy that includes measures that have been implemented already such as…

Governments change policies as facts change. Sometimes policies change and in this case, we had a change of Government. It is a new, different Government, involving three parties, namely, my party, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. Some of the policies of this Government are different to the ones of the past, as they should be. Among the reforms we made to help people who are renting is the introduction of a rent freeze in real terms. That means that rents can only increase by the rate of inflation or less, as measu…

I am advised that the Government made the decision on changes to Part V based on a detailed report from the Housing Agency, which recommended-----

-----that some transitional provisions should be included but only for lands purchased while the obligation was at 10%. Land purchases before 2015 or after July 2021 will be at 20%. The Deputy supported that Bill at the time. He was for it before he was against it. It is a little bit like linking rents to inflation.

He was for that before he was against it.

What happens is any time-----

The Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, need not be concerned. This is the regular pattern of Sinn Féin. The truth hurts. It really hurts.

Any time anyone speaks the truth to your party, you interrupt, you get aggressive, you get nasty and you get personal-----

-----and that is one of the many reasons people should be very afraid of Sinn Féin in government. If members of Sinn Féin behave like this in opposition, imagine how they would behave in government.

If anyone stood up to them, whether workers, business people, pensioners, homeowners or property owners-----

-----they would be subject to this.

The Deputy is absolutely correct in his initial remarks. The cost of living is rising and everyone can see that. We see it in the forecourts, the supermarkets and when people fill their oil tank for the winter. The cost of 1,000 l of home heating oil was €450 this time last year. It is €750 now; up to the level it was in 2019. We are seeing a return to inflation, a matter I spoke about months ago and which people were dismissive of at the time. It is now very much a reality. It is hurting families, consumers and bu…

I do not have data on stop requests but I will find out the position. I am interested to know myself. I will find out and pass the information on to the Deputy. We are not going to rule out using maximum price orders, but I am conscious of what has happened in the UK. One can impose a maximum price order on the electricity or fuel retailer but the latter still needs to get the fuel from somewhere else. Retailers still have to pay the international wholesale price. If the fuel retailer buys a barrel of oil or canist…

As we all know, aviation is one of the sectors worst affected by the pandemic. Many airlines have experienced a severe drop in revenue and are facing degrees of financial challenge. The aviation recovery in Ireland has been much slower than in other states. We are back to about 50% of where we were. As the Deputy outlined, Ryanair, which operates all across Europe, points out that the rest of Europe is about 70% back to where it was. Aer Lingus in particular has been affected to a larger extent than other airlines …