It is thousands of houses.

The party opposed 1,200 units in Donabate. I am answering Deputy Ó Snodaigh's question.

The Deputy is not displaying sincerity.

The Deputy and his party are not displaying credibility when they come in here and attack, attack and attack. Their solutions are absent.

I argue, and I have said it about all parties, that if we are all agreed housing is the number one crisis then Members opposite must ask themselves the question-----

-----as to how they can in good conscience-----

-----object to projects that have been years in planning with the councils and involve social, affordable and cost-rental housing.

How can they continue to oppose them?

I make the point that I did not interrupt anybody when they were speaking.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. What I said yesterday and today is not blaming people. It was to underline the importance of the booster, especially in light of the arrival of the Omicron variant. I was talking to the President of the European Commission and others. There is still a bit to go on interpreting the data, research and science. The science seems to indicate we are looking at a more infectious and more transmissible variant but that vaccination still gives protection against disease, hospitalis…

The HSE acknowledges that it has to improve systems, but it is more than that. In my conversations with all the principals yesterday, there was a sense, to be frank, that the same urgency that applied to getting a first and second dose was not quite there for the third dose. That is not to cast blame or anything like that, but to urge everybody that the booster has very significant and positive impacts in strengthening the immune system against new variants of this disease, and especially from getting severely ill …

It is good to see the Deputy back. I thank him for raising these questions. He called the re-enactment of the public health laws last week "draconian". These laws have been debated in the House on a number of occasions since the pandemic started. Public health comes to the forefront during a pandemic and laws are brought in for its duration. These are not laws one would use in ordinary times. They are used for a purpose, they are specific and they are designed to try to protect lives and health. That is the motivat…

First, it is not possible to have pre-legislative scrutiny. Pre-legislative scrutiny in the Dáil is now taking up to six months in some cases----

In some cases, it is taking up to six months. There is no way one can deal with a pandemic, going through the luxury of-----

It is. It is very rational.

It is taking six months for pre-legislative scrutiny on many key Bills, never mind a public health emergency. Is the Deputy seriously suggesting we could do it?

We cannot do it. Unfortunately, the experience has been that it takes too long. We are extending the timeframe for the operation of the legislation that is expiring, in essence, and consolidating-----

-----the existing powers that were there in different Acts and so forth. I accept the point that people are war weary of this pandemic. Of course, they are. It has gone on much longer than people may have anticipated.

On the other hand, we are in a different position this year compared to last year in terms of where the economy is and the degree to which it has bounced back. There are 30,000 job vacancies in quarter 3, compared to 19,000, two years ago. The hospitality sector, entertainment and tourism have been hardest hit and we will do everything we can to support those sectors.

I disagree with the basic premise of the Deputy's argument. She speaks of a Government agenda. The only agenda I and the Government have is to protect people's lives and health in the middle of a global pandemic which is a one-in-100-year event. There is no other agenda than that. I do not know what the Deputy meant when she said it was just to suit the Government's agenda. Our motivation is to protect people and their lives. I will be honest with the Deputy. That needs balance between competing interests and right…