We will have to look at other ways. We will work with the Deputy and engage further on this to see what we can do.

In response to Deputy Mythen, €220 million in core funding went into childcare this year. It should be within the capacity of the sector, given that level of funding, to deal with the issue he raised, although I do not know the details of the individual case. On Deputy Costello's point, I will talk to the Minister for Education. The move the Minister has made in having an alternative exam is quite a radical shift from the traditional stance in terms of standardisation, assessment and so on. I say that as someone wh…

Sorry. On the pig industry, Deputy Smyth will know from her interactions with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, that he is working intensively with the pig farmers. It is an industry that ordinarily is viable but because of a unique set of circumstances, a perfect storm has emerged for the industry. We want to protect the jobs and the industry and the Minister is working on that basis.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. The only commissions of investigation for which I am the specified Minister under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 are the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Commission of Investigation and the National Asset Management Agency Commission of Investigation, both of which are fully independent. The IBRC Commission of Investigation was established in June 2015 following consultation with Oireachtas parties. It is investigating certain transactions, a…

I thank the Deputies for the issues raised. With respect to Deputy Boyd Barrett, we need a better model of inquiry. More important, existing agencies should be the principal mechanism for holding Government agencies and bodies and, generally, society to account and contemporaneously. One of the difficulties in looking back is that we use the prism of today to judge actions 30 or 40 years ago. In respect of the financial issues, I agree very serious issues were raised, particularly in terms of the IBRC. It is seven …

Of course, but-----

Approximately 18,000 Ukrainians have come into this country in the space of six weeks. In parallel with that, in terms of normal migration outside of Ukraine, more migrants and asylum seekers have arrived here in the first two to three months of this year than arrived here in the entirety of last year. Within Europe, we have internal migration into Ireland, which we have to deal with and respond to in terms of emergency accommodation. It is not all simple and the Deputy should not pretend that it is.

The Deputy is saying that because he is already building up the case for an inquiry against people who are working flat out within our system to do everything they possibly can to accommodate people with respect and with dignity. We are doing that. In terms of ending direct provision, the Government has a policy in that respect. There are hundreds of families in direct provision who could leave it, but the housing situation does not facilitate them doing so. We are building. There were 31,000 commencements last yea…

If I could just-----

I just want to very quickly-----

I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 20, inclusive, together. I attended a number of meetings of the European Council in recent weeks. A special meeting on 24 February was called in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I also attended an informal meeting on 10 and 11 March that took place in Versailles and the regular March meeting of the European Council on 24 and 25 March. All those meetings were dominated by events in Ukraine. We have condemned the war since the start as immoral and unjustifiable, and righ…

The next batch of questions relate to the phone call I had with President Zelenskyy. They become irrelevant afterwards.

Yes.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 to 29, inclusive, together. We have condemned the war since the start as immoral and unjustifiable, and rightly so, but the evidence emerging at the weekend of horrific crimes against civilians in regions north of Kyiv is especially and profoundly shocking. Such unspeakable deeds cannot go unanswered and those responsible must be held to account. I spoke to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by phone on 16 March during my visit to the United States. I found him to be …

Deputy Carthy began the round of questions and referred to the pig industry. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, has been working intensively with the industry and we are conscious of the difficulties and challenges it has been going through on a number of fronts. It is normally a viable industry and we will do everything we can to support it. We will work with European Commission leeway and flexibilities to do so and we will see what can be done to underpin that with the applicat…

Deputy Haughey raised the importance of making sure that evidence is gathered and that we bring the evidence of the appalling war crimes to the International Criminal Court, which I wholeheartedly support. Everybody condemns the appalling and indiscriminate murder of civilians in Bucha and in other towns in the environs of Kyiv. One is also conscious that in Mariupol and other cities, more horrendous situations may emerge, which unquestionably represent the worst of humanity. On sanctions, we support banning oil an…

We should be accelerating their applications to join the European Union, particularly Ukraine but also the western Balkan countries, where quite a number of states are well advanced. The European Union has been somewhat too slow in accepting their applications and some member states have held back in agreeing to allowing those countries to join. From a geopolitical perspective, the strongest protection that many countries in the neighbourhood of Russia and the EU have is membership of the European Union. When the C…

I am dealing with the questions one by one. It is not all about the Deputy. There are other Deputies in the House and I am answering their questions. I wanted to make that point. Deputy Barry raised the cancellation of debt. Again, the European Union has been and will continue to be the biggest donor to Ukraine. I have no doubt that in the aftermath of this war, it will be Europe and other like-minded states that will have to come to the rescue. Already we decided at the Council of Europe meeting to set up a Ukrain…

This is the classic stuff that you guys go on with, the whole time.

You never acknowledge that, for example, Germany is the biggest donor to Ukraine on a humanitarian level. I have no doubt that the international response will be one of absolute support for Ukraine and there will be various mechanisms to facilitate that. I have no intention of reducing that to a mere slogan. Deputy Richmond raised the issue of the expulsion of diplomats. Expelling four diplomats was not paltry at all; it was quite substantive and significant from a Russian Federation perspective and relative to the…