We recognise the intention of the Deputy in providing more constructive opposition and the different tone of it. At the same time, and with respect to Deputy Bacik, it is simply not open to the Government to be able to maintain the levels of expenditure, borrowing and intervention we had during the era of Covid. That was a unique period in our public and economic health, one that is thankfully coming to an end as the disease is put behind us. Even though it is present, it is not posing the fundamental challenge to …

The Government appreciates the challenges, anxiety, stress and trauma that so many face as they look for an affordable home or a home they can be confident they will be able to afford to rent in the future and experienced by all those who have been waiting on social housing lists for so many years looking for the opportunity to have a roof over their head that they can call home. We appreciate this and we are determined to make progress on it. However, this is the reason we have such investment by the Government go…

Those homes will then be available for use by the local authorities-----

Deputy Boyd Barrett knows the truth. He knows well that the houses he has just referenced will then be used by the local authority in his area to respond to housing needs and clear the housing list. That is a fact. The Deputy comes in here and makes the case about the truth. Any Deputy who is trying to respond to the housing needs within his or her constituency knows a share of the houses being built by private developers and interests is used by the local authority to house people.

The Deputy referred to talk, commitments and the time for speaking being over. The reality is 977 homes being built in Dundrum, 817 in Balbriggan, 345 in Skerries and 219 in Naas by the Land Development Agency.

These are planning applications that are in to build the homes we need while our local authorities are directly building thousands of homes across the country this year to make progress on the great challenge on which we know faster progress needs to be made.

I thank the Deputy for his very detailed question regarding the funding the State makes available to cover a share of the travel expenses of those who work on behalf of the State. Perhaps this is a matter that will form part of the engagement in regard to public sector wages that is currently under way. The Government hopes we will get to a point at which those negotiations will lead to a conclusion that is both fair and affordable. It is a matter for which the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is respons…

The reference the Deputy made to monetary policy is interesting because it is the monetary policy that was in place which allowed the Government to put in place the huge support during the time of Covid, as referenced by Deputy Bacik. There are few economists claiming that it is the budgetary response that was put in place by governments that has led to the inflationary pressures we are now facing in Europe.

I think it is a critique that is developing in other parts of the world. As the Deputy will be aware, it could be the case that the higher levels of savings that are present within economies in Europe after the Covid crisis are playing a role. What is playing a far bigger role is the impact of the war in Ukraine and supply chains that were really weak and fragile as an effect of the pandemic. The Deputy said he was hoping for a more detailed response. As I said, he put a very detailed question about an aspect of ho…

Is the Deputy against the extension of the reduced VAT rate?

He needs to be clear on what his view is in this regard. Is he against the extension of the 9% rate for hospitality?

This is a sector that went through such a difficult period over the past three years-----

We have put in place a measure to give the sector the opportunity to recover from the awful effects of the pandemic. Of course I remember the issue that Deputy Doherty raised with me, but this is why the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, who is directly responsible for dealing with our tourism sector and its future development, and her officials have been engaging with representatives of the hospitality sector to make clear to them the price they will pay in future for putting in plac…

-----will be those involved in Irish tourism.

Regarding the 9% rate of VAT-----

-----I am ever more confused about where Sinn Féin stands on it. It is a measure put in place to support a really important employer in parts of our economy.

The ESB is involved in an expansion of the number of recharging points available. An advertising campaign is being run to draw attention to the recharging points in place and, I am sure, those new ones to come. I take Deputy Bacik's point, however, that we need to see an expansion in the number of these charging points and more available in suburban parts of our cities and in our in towns and villages. I have no doubt that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will be pressing the ESB, with the funding tha…

Given the seriousness of the matter raised by the Deputy, I will ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to refer to him directly. We take very seriously the integrity of An Bord Pleanála, the justified reputation for integrity which it does have. I am confident in its decisions and how it makes them, but I accept that the Deputy is raising an important point. I do not have a detailed note available on that matter raised but I will ask the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brie…

We of course appreciate how hard our doctors and nurses are working in providing the medical care so badly needed after the demanding years we have been through. We can see the impact that is having on waiting lists. Regarding the industrial action referred to by the Deputy, and taking the national consultant hospital doctors, NCHD, issue, which is now the subject of potential industrial action and unrest, the number of such doctors that we have in our health system has now gone from 6,091 to 7,720. That is an incr…

This has been put in place to respond to the waiting lists, which we will get down as the year goes on.