Politically, the Deputy wishes to avoid the charge that she wishes to get rid of the carbon tax.

That is what it means. That said, we want flexibility on the VAT side, obviously.

The Deputy is right to say that this is going to go right through to the end of the year, and that is how the Government must react here. We cannot be bringing in separate measures every week.

We have to prepare for the medium term in terms of helping to manage the economy properly.

I congratulate the Deputy on her election as leader of the Labour Party. I wish her every success.

I express the very best wishes from us. I pay tribute to the Deputy's predecessor as leader, Deputy Alan Kelly. Notwithstanding the odd spat, we enjoyed a good relationship. His heart was always in the public interest and of that there can be no doubt. I appreciated his constructive leadership in the teeth of the Covid-19 crisis. I concur with much of what the Deputy has said in respect of the Ukrainian crisis. I express my sympathies to Pierre's family. I was invited to the service but was at Cabinet so my aide-de…

I wanted to respond to questions she raised. I can take them up in the next round.

We are still 80% reliant on importation of fossil fuels more broadly across the energy portfolio. We are making good progress on the contribution of renewables to electricity where I think we are at 41% or 43%. The point is that gas will be a transitional backup fuel for a long time, behind our renewables effort. The Deputy is correct that this war means we have to double down on renewables. However, alongside and parallel with renewables, we will need gas. We have to be clear about that. The Department of the Envi…

To take the Deputy's last question first, I think the White House, through the person of President Biden, has been remarkably consistent, strong and assertive in regard to the Good Friday Agreement and the protection of the agreement. In my meeting with the President, he was very strong on that. I briefed him on the current situation in Northern Ireland in respect of the Executive and the fact that it was not operational, given what had happened, that elections were pending and that, from our perspective, a lot of …

In the first instance, we have to deal with the agreement we have.

Yes, but there is an election on right now. Whatever the outcome of the election, the status quo applies regarding the election of the Executive First Minister and deputy First Minister. Once that happens and an Executive is established under the current electoral and political framework, the parties in the North can by all means engage regarding whatever reforms-----

Just hear me out, please. They can engage with the two Governments regarding whatever reforms they believe are desirable. There is an election on right now, however, and we should allow it to take its course and the people elected to create the Executive.

I have said consistently in the House that housing is the single most important social and economic issue facing us as a country at this moment in time. Access to housing is fundamental to people's sense of well-being, security, stability and health, and for us as a broader society in terms of our progress as a nation. That is why we have, on a whole-of-government approach, developed the Housing for All strategy, with significant resources put at the disposal of that strategy, namely €4 billion a year every year ov…

That is what we are doing. There is a very strong social housing construction component in Housing for All. It is the largest component. In 2022, we will deliver close to 12,000 social homes, the highest number ever, of which 9,000 will be new builds. In addition, since the Government came into office more than 18 months ago we have focused strongly on voids, as has the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. In the past 18 months, 5,500 social homes have been brought back into …

He should eat the rasher with a poached egg.

I did not answer-----

I actually said he should have the rasher with a poached egg or a poached egg with the rasher.

I was not joking; I was serious. I believe in a good rasher for breakfast. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is alive to the issue. We have already allocated funding to the pigmeat industry. Just as we did in respect of Covid-19 when we helped an awful lot of enterprises survive by investing in them, we also want to keep a viable industry, the pigmeat industry, intact and viable because in normal times it is a productive industry that does well. The Minister is engaging with the sector to see if we …

The Minister is working on that. I can confirm that we will endeavour to have a debate on that next week and I have asked the Chief Whip to follow up on that. On having a debate on the pigmeat sector or a debate on the war in Yemen, I have to say to the Deputies that there is more Private Members' time available in this Dáil than in previous Dáileanna. There is therefore an obligation on the Deputies themselves to bring forward these issues-----

-----in Private Members' time. There is Topical Issues as well. We need to balance legislation-----