We need to fully work the Good Friday Agreement. That is why I regret the decision of the DUP to withdraw the First Minister from the Executive. Regarding Deputy Barry's point, the Executive is there to carry out existing work. I have not had a chance to talk to the First Minister or the Deputy First Minister about the issue that the Deputy raises. It is primarily a matter for the Northern Ireland authorities.

I have not had an opportunity yet, given the events that have happened. The Oireachtas does not interfere in the courts.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Without question there have been record attendances in our emergency departments over the last month. The situation is very challenging in many emergency departments across the country with those record attendances. What is more worrying is the preponderance or majority of those over 75 years are presenting to emergency departments with more acute illnesses than would have been the case in previous times. The clinicians on the ground say that this is a legacy arising from t…

Does Deputy McDonald just say anything? Did she read the Secretary General's speech to the Oireachtas committee this morning? Where in that speech did she pick up-----

-----that he was not committed to Sláintecare? The presentations today reflect that commitment to Sláintecare but Deputy McDonald simply thinks she can come in and say anything and it does not matter whether it is true or not. She just comes in and says it-----

-----and throws it out there. If you throw enough mud, it will stick seems to be her approach to what are very serious issues. Yesterday's progress report on Sláintecare shows very dramatic progress in a whole range of areas in respect of that plan. I referenced one, namely, GP access to diagnostics. The whole chronic disease management has resulted in about 220,000 consultations as GPs work with consultants. There is much innovation and much implementation going on. There are increases in bed capacity, there is th…

-----there is the reduction in regard to medical card prescriptions and there is improvement in access. There are challenges and legacies arising out of Covid that Deputy McDonald should accept because it is obvious. It is obvious to anybody watching the situation.

There has to be, and should be, accountability. I am not clear what the Deputy is proposing. These are very serious scandals in themselves, in terms of the Grace case and the case of Brandon and what transpired there. The Deputy referenced the south Kerry CAMHS. At this initial stage, I would put a question mark after the word "rogue". I think that is judgmental of the individual because I do not believe it is one issue pertaining to one individual. There are issues in terms of prescribing and so on but whether it …

I 100% agree with the Deputy. Of course, people should not be moved. What happened was very wrong and it should not happen. It is incomprehensible that it happened as recently as some years ago, which is my understanding in respect of the Brandon case. Accountability is built into systems, but people contest who is or is not accountable. People will argue and will say it is not them but somebody else. It is not that simple because people have rights and they will contest whether they are the ones to be blamed for a…

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues, which are very serious and are taken very seriously by the Government. As the Deputy said, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has worked with him in respect of the Brandon report, which is a shocking and very disturbing report. What happened in that instance has caused enormous distress and hurt to the families involved. A national independent review has been commissioned by the HSE to carry out a review of abuse allegations at a HSE-provided residential service for…

Again, I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I hear what he is saying in respect of the publication of the Brandon report in full. As I said, the matter is not closed from the Government's perspective. We do not want to undermine any disciplinary issues or any other issues that may arise out of this.

I am just making the point that it is not closed. We are not finished with this yet because it is a very serious case and a very serious issue. Speaking more generally, there has to be balance here. To return to the previous question, our existing agencies have to be able to do the work. Increasingly, almost daily now, it is an independent review for this and an independent review for that, where we have existing statutory agencies which are meant to be doing that work.

Hear me out. We have the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, in respect of the Garda-----

No. Into the future, we are going to have make sure that agencies such as HIQA and GSOC do their work like all of the other bodies that are there to regulate and to enforce regulation, otherwise we will have commissions being established every two months, with all of the implications that that brings with it. The Deputy will be aware that there are commissions of inquiry still going on six years later. There are issues that we need to look at collectively as an Oireachtas.

I would have to disagree with the Deputy. Let us deal with 2022, not 2008, which is a long time ago and there was a different economic situation.

I did not interrupt the Deputy.

The bottom line is this. We all know the current cause of the inflationary cycle is global. Oil and gas prices have risen dramatically. Two and a half months ago, on 1 December, the cost of the barrel of oil was $68. Do you agree?

It now costs $93 or $94. That clearly is a dramatic increase in a number of months, which the Central Bank and Europe are saying is a pandemic-related cycle of inflation.

Natural gas costs £1.65 per therm on international markets, compared with 42 pence per therm last February. Higher gas prices have pushed up electricity costs as gas was used to generate half of this country's electricity last year. The latest CSO data on wages shows that average weekly earnings rose 5.4% in quarter 3 of 2021 from a year earlier and were up to 8.9% from their pre-pandemic levels in quarter 3 of 2019, which is contrary to much of what has been said here in the past number of weeks. That said, added …

To suggest that it is just carbon tax is simply not the truth. The story with the carbon tax is that we are giving the money back to the public in the form of the retrofitting scheme, where we will enable people to retrofit their homes which will lead to cheaper fuel costs into the future. We are giving money from the carbon tax to farmers for environmentally friendly farming programmes.