We are and we have introduced rent restrictions. We are going to develop cost rental houses also. In the rent pressure zones, we have capped rent increases at 2%. Supply is the ultimate answer to this. We have to build houses of all types and we need all sectors involved in housing. The Deputy's problem is he does not believe the private sector should be involved at all. That is his ideological position. He is entitled to it-----

-----but that will not guarantee housing at the scale we require. We need private builders to build houses. We need local authorities to build houses. They are doing so, and we have resourced them to do it. We need approved social housing bodies to build houses, and they are doing so to an increasing extent and to very high standards, as I have witnessed when opening a variety of schemes so far.

We need to develop cost rental housing, which we are going to do, and continue to provide protections for renters, including in respect of indefinite duration.

Absolutely.

First, there has always been a tradition in this House of not making allegations against people who are not here to defend themselves or respond. Second, my understanding is-----

The Deputy's case went the whole way to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges when she abused privilege in this House.

She never apologised for her abuse of privilege.

She abused it. We need to adhere to those traditions because if people are not here to defend themselves or respond, it has to be taken into context. In any event, to make a general comment on public servants, we are fortunate in this country to have high standards of public service across Departments. There is no doubt there are strengths and weaknesses, but overall Irish public servants have done well by the State since its foundation. That has been made manifest most recently in the public service's response to …

There are many parties on that council; let us be clear about that.

The SIPO report will have an impact and, I would put it to the Deputy, is already having an impact. When a report like that is published, even though it is specific to a particular action by a chief executive officer in a particular local authority, it has wider implications and ramifications for other chief executive officers in local authorities throughout the country.

Yes, it does. I would not agree with the Deputy. Not everyone is going to behave in the same way that one council does or one chief executive officer may do. Others will take note of what was laid down by SIPO and its findings regarding this issue. That is my view. It will have-----

-----far-reaching impacts on the future behaviour of councils.

Other councils will take a different view and take on board the SIPO report and its conclusions. There cannot be any attempts to influence the content of any local radio discussion, debate or its treatment or coverage of any issue-----

Even if there are advertisements that emanate from the council and so on, that is not correct. It can never be used for that purpose by anybody. I am very clear about that.

It is not enough to say that there is growing anxiety about the aggressive position of Russia. I think we should all be clear in this House that we all condemn the Russian aggression. We should use that language clearly and without equivocation. Yes, there will be repercussions from sanctions. That is the inescapable consequence of Russia's behaviour. We do not want to take economic sanctions. Nobody does. Those sanctions will have an impact. The crisis is having an impact on oil and gas prices and that will contin…

First, as has been said, we are moving from an emergency phase of the pandemic into the transitional phase. Subject to Government approval, it is intended that testing for SARS-CoV-2 will move from extensive case find and tracing of infection to reduce transmission towards a focus on mitigation of the severe impacts of Covid-19 for those most vulnerable to the severe effects of the disease and those with risk factors for severe disease who may benefit from specific interventions. During this transition, the HSE wil…

My understanding is that there is not a cut of that scale in inspections. The Residential Tenancies Board has the resources to pursue breaches of the legislation in respect of protecting tenants. On the issue of resources-----

-----in the overall support, I will come back to the Deputy with the specifics.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The Chief Medical Officer is very clear that we have to move to a different phase of the pandemic, that the wholesale testing and tracing regime will no longer apply during the transitionary period and that we have to embed into our existing public health system permanent responses and surveillance of the disease and other diseases. The Sentinel system, for example, which is a GP-based system, will be expanded. We already agreed last year to double the allocation of funding…

I was asked-----