My question is on the same topic. I do not know if the Minister just takes everybody for a fool. Does he really expect people to believe that after the Government brings in amendments to designate LNG terminals as strategic infrastructure, which gets to bypass the normal planning process, it is a technical thing? This is in the context of many of the Green Party's coalition partners being on the record forcefully and repeatedly advocating for LNG terminals. Get real here. Either the Minister is incredibly naive and…

I am sorry but that does not assuage any of my concerns. Oisín Coghlan is chief executive of Friends of the Earth, which is not the wing of the environmental movement that is most critical of the Green Party. It has sometimes spoken positively about the party's record in government. Oisín Coghlan has said: You don’t legally designate something you oppose, or aren’t sure we need, as strategic! The contradiction is so absurd it feels like the Government is gaslighting us. He goes on to say that if facilitating an LNG…

The Minister is saying that it could be ensured that fracked gas is not used in this so-called State-led LNG terminal. However, the Government's policy statement from May 2021 is clear. It is not possible for Ireland, under the European treaties or EU directives concerning common rules of the internal market in natural gas, to legislate for a ban on the import of fracked gas into Ireland or to prevent the processing of fracked gas in the State. Will the Minister enlighten us as to how this is going to happen? The t…

The Taoiseach has not condemned Israel-----

He has not.

Just condemn it.

Just condemn the US.

Go on, say it. Just condemn it.

Say it, Taoiseach.

Say it and be consistent. Condemn the US.

I do not know if any of the Ministers or Ministers of State here have had a chance to read Ciara Reilly's article in the Irish Examiner . It is very powerful and concerns the way this budget, in reality, fails families with children who have additional needs. She really puts her finger on it. This applies to all the tens of thousands of children with additional needs, but even more generally, it speaks to the nature of the budget the Government has introduced. She writes: So even after the "biggest giveaway budget …

The Minister, Deputy Chambers, spoke earlier about the Apple tax money having "the capacity to be transformational". He did not mention, nor did the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, that, as Deputy Boyd Barrett has pointed out, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael fought tooth and nail not to take this transformative amount of money, to say that €14 billion should stay on the cash pile of one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world. He also did not mention that they wasted €10 million of public money in fighting that case.…

It is backing business at the expense of workers. That is exactly what it is doing. The reason this Government - or the next Government if it is returned - is not going to introduce a transformative budget is that it will not break from its reliance on the market. In other words, it will not break from the prioritisation of profit for Apple, corporate landlords, private developers, private health insurers, private hospital providers and so on. Their profit comes before the needs of people affected by the housing an…

The treatment of education is summed up by the fact that, as the INTO has pointed out, more money has been allocated to the gimmick of smartphone pouches, to grab a cheap headline, than to increases in capitation for primary schools. That is absolutely scandalous and demonstrates a lack of priority for young people. The Government refused to introduce a second tier of child benefit for the poorest children in the State as called for by all the major child welfare and child poverty organisations, including the Child…

We had a budget that trumpeted the fact it is giving a so-called baby boost to new parents of children of €420. That is it. It will not go very far. Now, before midnight - in effect, from tomorrow morning - we have got a measure which will give a very substantial baby boost to the wealthiest 3% of households worth €21,450. It is one of the great tricks of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to try to pretend that ordinary people are affected by inheritance tax. The vast majority of people are not, and will never be in their …

A farm is written down by 90%. With agricultural relief you can get up to €3.35 million.

I presume the Minister is aware of the major investigation into the intensive farming lobby published yesterday. The investigation says this lobby is "preventing Ireland from addressing its poor air and water quality and meeting its climate targets". Does the Minister agree that the nitrates derogation overwhelmingly benefits a wealthier minority of intensive farmers and major agrifood industry players? Is this why he is defending a licence to pollute?

The Minister suggests that I should inform myself and, perhaps for the tenth time, says I should travel outside the M50. For the tenth time, I will tell him that I live outside the M50. People right across this country have a right to have input into how our farming is done and on the impact on our environment. I ask the Minister to inform me. When the cut to the derogation rate was announced last year, he said that 7,000 farmers out of 130,000 family farms avail of it. By his own admission, only 5% of farmers are …

Will the Minister tell me about the 7,000?

The Minister did not give me the figures for the average income of the 7,000. That is what I am interested in getting. He suggests that it is some sort of conspiracy theory to say that the economy is run by very wealthy corporations - he used the term "oligarchs" - but it is not; it is the reality. Let us look at who is lobbying to retain the nitrates derogation. Glanbia made €117 million in profit last year and is actively lobbying for it. After meeting with the Taoiseach in May, the CEO of Dairygold said that 60%…