I just want to make-----

Caithfear é-----

First, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As a former member of Government, Deputy Howlin realises the enormous issue facing society because we are living longer, which is a good thing. In the last 50 years, the transformation of health has been extraordinary. In the last 100 years the average life span has increased by 25 years in this country, which is quite a dramatic transformation from when the State was founded. In the last 20 years in particular, survival rates from heart disease, cancer and stroke h…

Well, increases, basically, let us be honest here.

That is what all the parties in the House have signed up for, it seems, if that is what is in the report. I understand, by the way, why that would be a recommendation. The Cabinet committee will look at this after the publication of the report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare. We said we would look at the pensions issue six months after we got the Commission on Pensions report, which will be the end of March. We intend to come back to the House on that. We support the banning of mandatory retirement clause…

Yes, I know. When I was in opposition the last time, the only committee that did its work honourably, or at least the majority did, was the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action. It made recommendations that were not palatable electorally but Oireachtas committees are not often disposed to making recommendations that are electorally unpalatable. That said, I will read the report and I accept the points made regarding the core principles. We need to engage further.

I have not read the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection in detail. I thought Deputy Howlin said it had recommended increases in PRSI but I am not so sure that it has done so.

I have an open mind, genuinely. The Government will approach this with an open mind. The Commission on Pensions did very detailed work, under Ms Josephine Feehily's chairmanship. It did genuine, bona fide work. It is work that will feed in. The joint committee has examined that. The Deputy made the point that it is fiscally sound. That will be examined. It has to be fiscally sound. There is no point pretending to future generations or leaving them short because this generation has not devised policy responses that …

About six Bills have already been passed to protect tenants' rights generally. In particular, the Tyrrelstown amendment provides that where a landlord proposes to sell ten or more units in a single development at the same time, that sale is subject to the existing tenants remaining in situ , other than in exceptional circumstances. The Deputy, to be fair to him, has raised the situation in St. Helen's Court involving five tenants or families, which is unacceptable. Under existing constitutional frameworks, there is…

The constitutional framework does restrict. It was possible during Covid because of lockdown and the 5 km rule. The legal advice was that in that context, in a lockdown scenario, one could do it but one could not do it outside of that where people could move to get alternative accommodation. When people were restricted to the 5 km rule the legal judgment was made that we could freeze evictions. That was the legal advice presented to us in that regard. On ten houses versus five, again it was a question of balance in…

I know that. I am trying to give an honest answer.

There are always constraints on the Legislature because we have a written Constitution. That is why we live in the kind of democracy that we do. We are one of the few countries that have a written Constitution, which is a limitation on the Executive and the Oireachtas.

We have the power through constitutional amendment if we so wish.

I am a bit confused because last October Deputy McDonald's party increased the pension age in Northern Ireland from 65 years to 66 years. We do have an open mind-----

----on the report of the pensions commission and the Oireachtas committee. We will examine that report in conjunction with the Commission on Taxation and Welfare.

The Bill is very progressive legislation. I would have to examine the detail obviously but I am generally supportive of the spirit of the legislation and what the Deputy is endeavouring to achieve.

Yes.

The Government is constantly looking at charges, particularly in the health area. The Deputy will know that in the budget we reduced inpatient paediatric charges and the threshold for the drug payment scheme. We will consistently and on an ongoing basis continue to look at charges. We will take the Social Democrats motion into account.

As Taoiseach, I would rarely intervene in decisions An Bord Pleanála has to make. I never do, in any event, as a public representative. The Government policy statement, which was approved and published on 18 May 2021, sets out that the Government does not support the importation of LNG fracked gas. That is the policy statement on the importation of fracked gas. The Deputy is probably familiar with that statement. I do not need to read it in detail here because I do not think I have the time to do so. That outlines …

The Deputy's question would take too long to answer.