On carbon taxation, we have brought in a broad measure that will do two things. It will disincentivise the use of fossil fuel over time and it will also give us the resources to retrofit the homes of ordinary people in this country to enable them to reduce heating costs on a sustainable basis over a long period. There are very ambitious plans there in terms of the thousands of houses that we want to retrofit through grant schemes and retrofitting local authority houses and social housing more generally. That is a s…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which is impacting on many businesses, people and homeowners throughout the country. The Government is very aware of the affordability issues and the difficulties very often with getting adequate insurance cover and availability of cover for certain businesses, particularly in the leisure sector and the sector the Deputy has just outlined. Unfortunately, there are no silver bullets here. The Government has taken action through a range of measures in our action plan for ins…

I ask the Deputy to send on the details of the situation to me and the background to it. I fully commend the work of Air Bound with children with disabilities and special needs. Unfortunately, under the EU Solvency II legislation, the Government is prohibited from setting insurance premiums so there is no silver bullet. However, I would like to hear more detail on the background to this. I will speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, who is dealing with insurance reform in the Department of Finance to see w…

I brought in the nursing degree programme quite a number of years ago as Minister for Health and Children and, if I say so myself, it was a transformative thing to do in how we educate nursing in this country and moved it on, by way of advanced nurse practitioners and postgraduate degrees, which has made a significant difference to our health system and the delivery of our health service. I am very keen therefore that we will continue to improve the situation for student nurses within the context of a degree progra…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue and I share his impatience. We want to get this done as fast as we possibly can. I was in Cobh recently, as was, I believe, the Deputy. This was a very significant achievement by Irish Water on the wastewater treatment system that is now operational and in place in the lower harbour region of Cork and significant progress was made there. The EPA, however, has issued its report in respect of 34 towns. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has all…

-----if we are serious about all of these issues as a country and as an Oireachtas, we need to get a bit real in how we deliver these projects faster. They are just being held up all over the place across the board and we cannot afford the luxury of doing that anymore.

Everybody needs to be honest. The farmers do not believe that what we are proposing is anything other than too much.

Let us all be honest here. The farming representatives have a view that what is being proposed is excessive.

I am just taking that point. The Deputy is giving the impression that they would appreciate if there were higher targets set for them. They would not, actually.

They need supports and they will be provided with them. We need a more diverse approach to farming in income streams to give opportunities to farming. We need to work with farmers. As I said earlier, there is a very significant hunger in the farming community for its capacity to reduce costs through alternative energy solutions, and that is something that I am very supportive of, but again we need to accelerate that together with the microgeneration within farming in a different approach. Farmers are creative, inno…

We need to be clear about this. The Deputy reported the figure of 3,726 cases and he almost, by juxtaposition, blames schools for this. This is an incredible presentation and it is not the case.

The issue is this. It is vital that children go to school and that their full range of development is catered for. That is the first priority and objective. What is the biggest issue facing children right now, when talking to public health people or to people in hospitals? I was in Clonmel on Friday and met the paediatrician, the director of nursing in the paediatric ward there. The biggest issue she has in admissions is respiratory syncytial virus, RSV. Non-Covid respiratory viruses are the biggest challenge facin…

I think that there will be a role, having spoken to the Chief Medical Officer, for antigen testing in specific areas, in schools and so on.

I will engage with the Minister for Justice on that Bill and legislation, where it is and I will come back to the Deputy on that.

First, there is no coincidence and it is wrong to suggest there is.

The point is there is no connection between climate change plans and proposals and the current issue with the supply of fertiliser. That is a global issue and it is gas related. At the European Council meeting, a number of Prime Ministers referenced challenges in regard to fertiliser supplies in the coming months. Yes, it is going to be problematic and there are lots of supply chain issues manifesting. We know car manufacturing, for example, has taken a big hit because of the insufficient supply of chips. That is h…

There are very real issues in the global supply chain market at the moment and we are going to have to deal with them.

Yes, it is.

I did not use the Government jet to go to Glasgow. Given the sheer number of people staying in the city, we stayed in Edinburgh and made the journey down. There are enormous crowds in Glasgow for COP26, with enormous interest from NGOs and so on. The Government jet is not being used that frequently, not by design, to be frank, because we do need to get to meetings and get back to be in this House and elsewhere, but because of its frequent need for maintenance and so on. I hear what the Deputy is saying in terms of …

Basketball is a great sport and we will do everything we possibly can to facilitate its restoration in these difficult Covid times. The Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, spoke to me about it just before I came into the Chamber and we will be discussing it again later.