It is a fair point I am making. The kind of populist response the party has articulated-----

-----is pure populism. When I mention replacing the licence fee with a reduced universal fee - up to 70% were paying the RTÉ fee - that was advocated by the Oireachtas committees. Successive Oireachtas committees on media advocated that. It is not just my idea. The Oireachtas committee did it. We supported it in opposition. We did not play the populist card that everything can be paid at the end of the day.

They know the politics.

They are resigned to the politics as usual.

The Deputy asked what has changed or what has developed. I will take education alone. There have been very significant developments since this Government was formed. Seven special schools have been established, and five of those are up and running. We focused on special education very quickly because, prior to that, there had not been the establishment of special schools. There are two in particular in the Cork area and a third under way. There has also been a very significant increase in the number of special need…

I did not fob off the Deputy.

What I did was challenge the assertions in the Deputy's contribution that zero had happened since the Government's formation. That is what she said in respect of special needs services generally, and I am entitled to do that when she raises what I believe to be a misleading presentation of the situation. That is not to say I do not recognise that serious issues remain, particularly in access to therapies. I have consistently said that in this House, both in opposition and in government, and I will continue to do th…

-----around progressing disability services, which I have had issues with and which I believe has been problematic and of a nature that has reduced children's access to therapies-----

-----whereas I want to increase children's access to therapies, particularly as regards special schools. I answered the Deputy's questions about CDNTs, the disability motorised scheme in terms of the work under way there, and the protocol, which the Government is examining.

However, the more fundamental issue is to get services and to increase services.

I appreciate the Deputy raising an important issue. More broadly, though, I have often reflected on how society has looked at these issues over the past 50 to 100 years. I recall the big protests about nuclear energy back in the 1970s-----

Dead right, but in the 1970s or 1980s there was never the same level of campaigning on fossil fuels. In fact, I can recall headlines in the 1970s and 1980s that we had struck oil as if it was a great panacea or achievement. We now know fossil fuels have been destroying the planet and have created an existential threat to the very survival of humankind. Yet, there was never the same agitation about that as there is about other aspects of renewables or even nuclear power. My problem with nuclear power is what to do w…

I thank the Deputy. I do not disagree with much of what he has said. The Climate Action Plan 2024 has set a revised timeline of quarter 4 of this year for the publication of the final wind guidelines and the Department is working towards meeting this commitment. It has to align with the new Planning and Development Bill 2023, which is currently undergoing the Oireachtas legislative process, and the ongoing review of the national planning framework. There will be a draft report, submissions will be sought from the p…

In respect of the situation with Ukrainians in this country, first of all, Russia invaded Ukraine savagely, illegally and, in my view, immorally and violated the UN Charter in so doing. It bombed towns, cities and civilian infrastructure. When the war started, I recall scenes of families packing trains and fathers and husbands saying goodbye to their loved ones. That has all been documented. It led to the largest displacement of European citizens since the Second World War. Up to 12 million people have been displac…

On the school front, we should pay tribute to our schools for the manner in which they have accommodated so many Ukrainian children-----

-----and integrated them into our system.

First of all, I did not say the Deputy had and, second, I did not say he should-----

I did not. Go back over-----

Go back over the blacks. You want to create a drama and create false assertions that I said you should not raise it.

This is a new trope going around, that people have no right to raise these issues. I have seen it everywhere. I never said-----