In fairness to Sinn Féin members, they have the capacity to speak out of five sides of their mouths at different times on policy issues. I do not mean that personally; I am talking generally.

It is extraordinary. The retrofitting programme could not be done without the funds that come from the carbon tax.

Some 240,000 houses have been retrofitted as a result of that programme over the past number of years. We have transformed retrofitting, we have transformed ACRES and environmental farming supports compared to what was there. Some 40% comes from the European Union and Sinn Féin has had an on-off relationship with Europe as well.

You are against it all the bloody time.

I agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh on the Skillnet project. Bord na Móna is a transformative State agency. It is a great example of how to go from being a contributor to probably making one of the better contributions among State agencies to the climate change agenda and to addressing climate change. There will be further economic dividends arising out of the transformation Bord na Móna has undertaken and been part of. Bord na Móna is a good story. On public transport, the NDP allocation is 2:1 in favour of public tr…

I thought Deputy Tóibín's comments on former Minister, Noel Dempsey, were not really warranted because no matter what-----

No matter what Deputy Tóibín's perspective is, I think he was a very effective Minister nationally.

Yes, and it is going to happen.

It is not 42 years. To nail it all on Noel Dempsey is a bit rich.

In fairness, that project is progressing and will happen because of this Government and the previous one, in particular, and because we are in the position to allocate money to it and get it going. That is an important point as well in terms of the scale of the investment that will be required.

I would think Deputy Tóibín would pay tribute what the former Deputy and Minister, Noel Dempsey, did for road safety. He was a singularly impactful Minister in that regard. He saved a lot of lives, even though many in the House at the time disagreed with him on the measures he took. Deputy O'Hara spoke about wind energy guidelines. I will engage with the Minister. I am hoping he will have those by the end of the year. I will come back to him. There is a lot of pressure on that unit in the Department in respect of t…

I get you. I hear you. Flexibility and funding is a great line.

Energy prices are not just an Irish issue but are European one as well. In fact, we discussed it at the informal competitiveness council last week and it will be discussed at the March European Council and the President of the Commission will be bringing some ideas around that. We tackled that a number of years ago. The problem is the connection to the price of gas. Renewables should decrease. Renewables are the cheapest form of energy - of that, there is no question - and fossil fuels are the most expensive. Nucle…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 39, inclusive, together. The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, advises me on strategic policy issues relating to sustainable, economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. The last two significant NESC reports published and submitted to Government were council report No.170, Connecting People to the Energy Transition, and NESC report No.171, Building a Virtuous Demographic Cycle. The NESC report No. 170 was submitted to the Government last August. It exa…

Deputy Boyd Barrett was first into the fray in terms of the winter payment and so forth. The Government took a lot of measures on energy in the budget, for example, reducing the VAT rate to 9% and keeping it there until 2030, including the working family payment in the fuel allowance and increasing the fuel allowance by €5 so that there are a very substantial number of people now benefiting. There are approximately 450,000 recipients of the fuel allowance now. The Deputy seems to support the energy credit as well. …

The left wing in this country never ceases to amaze me.

We do. We have the most progressive tax system. We have, by any yardstick-----

-----which is quite substantial and effective. The bottom line anyway is that we are targeting the resources at those who need it most. I accept there is pressure on energy. Of that, there is not doubt, but to keep doing €2 billion to €3 billion in one-off payments is not sustainable. One third of our revenue is corporate tax. That may not last forever. We need to embed measures into the permanent budget, which is what we did beginning in the budget. There is huge investment in infrastructure and investment in the …

Yes, the Deputy is.

I do not know it.