Everybody knows the cause of this is an unprecedented war on the Continent of Europe that nobody anticipated. In advance of that war, there was a deliberate strategy to cut energy and fuel supplies. There is no question about that now, in the full light of day. Unfortunately, that has created very negative impacts on us all, particularly workers and people on very low incomes. That is why, as I said earlier, we need an inclusive, comprehensive and sensible response, as a country, to two major crises in a year.

That means covering all aspects of this, including pay policy, tax, welfare and climate. To do it on a tax-by-tax basis makes no sense. It is incoherent. That is why I am not jumping to the political bait from the Deputy and others in the House who are attempting to make this about one issue or one tax., which is nowhere near the real cause of what is transpiring here. We have already brought down the excise duty on fuel by 15 to 20 cent. That equates to an average of between €9 and €12 when filling the average tan…

He did not mention it at all. He believes strongly and passionately-----

-----in energy efficiency, which is a legitimate pursuit and a good policy across the board, war or no war, and one of the most effective is to equip ordinary working people with the wherewithal to retrofit their homes so they can reduce their bills in the long and medium term. It is important that we do that work and that we are not deflected from it.

The only three-card trick I saw attempted in this House in the last month was from yourselves when at one stage, prior to the war, they had us believing the Russians were not going to start any war-----

-----and that NATO was the warmonger. That is what the Deputy and others said in this House.

That is the only three-card trick I saw attempted in this House. I did not mention Deputy Boyd Barrett at all; he has been consistent enough but Deputies Barry, Paul Murphy and others had us believe that the warmongers in Europe and NATO were going to be the cause of this war. Now we know the truth of who caused the war. Less of that kind of trickery from the Deputy from time to time-----

In terms of the ESB and any price gouging there is a Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in place to investigate all of that. The Deputy should present the evidence-----

-----on that and I will have no issue with that being pursued.

There should be no price gouging or exploitation of the situation. The ESB has a huge capital debt on the other side of that balance sheet by the way. It has that debt from investing in making sure we have energy security and supply, which are also very important. I did not get an opportunity to make that point in response to Deputy Bacik's question. There is a balance in the short term in energy and security of energy supply and gas will be a transitional fuel; let there be no doubt about that. As we need to drama…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and acknowledging the strong support the Government has given to the hospitality sector because, without question, it was a major victim as a sector as a result of Covid-19. It had a horrendous time during the two years of Covid-19. The Government allocated a record level of funding for tourism in budget 2022, of €288 million in total, which was an increase of about €67 million. That covered marketing strategies, with €80 million for the Tourism Ireland programme to strengt…

I will talk to the Minister again about that. I would just say that Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment advised that it only received 12 applications for hospitality manager positions under the newly introduced quota, which I referenced earlier. That might indicate that demand for those type of positions is low. Processing times are not what they should be, but the Department has an action plan to reduce turnaround times. That plan is yielding results. The processing team has trebled in size and daily ou…

You would find some way of doing it.

First, in terms of Deputy Naughten's question, the carbon budget is provided for in legislation. In fairness, he would have heard Deputy Bacik say earlier that we are not moving fast enough. We have to move too. There are three and a half hours tomorrow for the debate. The more substantive debate could be on the actual sectoral budgets, which will come later in the year-----

-----but it is very important that we set this overall limit. Let us be under no illusions, however. This will be very challenging. I anticipate more pushback from the Dáil. As I said earlier, as the UN Secretary-General said, there will be a lot of doublespeak on this. Many people will be saying that we need to do this and that but not yet, not now, not that way or to do it some other way.

That is what is going to happen in this debate; of that I have no doubt. We have got to move ahead, however. There are three and a half hours for the debate tomorrow. In terms of Deputy Mattie McGrath, I am nowhere near as a good dancer as he is. I have to put that on the record.

I would never attempt to emulate the Deputy in that regard.

I want to say this to Deputy McGrath, however-----

I do not mind a meaningful debate at all. We should have a meaningful debate. I am not on the Business Committee. Only so much can be done on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in terms of Dáil time. Again, there is Private Members' time, which people have-----

-----if they want to put forward issues for debate. In terms of Deputy Mac Lochlainn's question, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is very well aware of the issues. In fact, I was with him in counties Donegal and Derry on Friday and Saturday. It is clear that he has engaged with the fishers on an overall package of measures, which are obviously connected to Brexit as well, to try to enable them to get over this period. He also had engagement with the farming sector in terms of support for tillage farmers, in partic…