Ireland is one of the most exposed countries in the world to the US trade tariff war. Ireland exports relatively more to the US than most other European countries. Last year, we exported €72 billion worth of goods, €58 billion of which comes under the heading of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Obviously, the Taoiseach sat in the same room as President Trump, and pharmaceuticals are a target of the US Administration. Under those threatened tariff increases, there would be a situation where these products would become…

How?

How do we respond?

That we are having statements on housing is another example of the fact that we are not functioning properly as a Legislature. The very fact we are having statements instead of pushing through legislation is basically a Dáil trying to look busy instead of doing the work it is meant to do. It is a disgrace that, week after week, we have statements on this, that and the other. It is showing the Government up for its inability to let this Parliament function. I wish to raise the issue of the number of houses that are …

Soon.

The former Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, previously furnished me with data that showed the number of people diagnosed with cancer was increasing every year until 2020 when the pandemic hit. Then it went significantly down. This suggests that people's cancers went undiagnosed when significant elements of the health services were closed down in 2020. To what extent did this happen?

I look forward to the Minister sending the figures to me. In those figures we know there was a fall of 4,000 in the number of cancer diagnoses in 2020. These are the figures that were given to us by the previous Minister for Health. That fall in cancer diagnoses happened because the Government shut down significant elements of the health service. It stopped the cancer screening processes during that time. This led to a number of people not having their cancers diagnosed in time, and those cancers developed into muc…

The Minister is right that Covid killed many people, for sure. Cancer also killed many people, for sure. We have not had a Covid inquiry yet so we do not know the effectiveness or net benefit in terms of saving people's lives of shutting down hospital services and stopping cancer patients getting treatment. The Minister mentioned survival rates. The National Cancer Registry shows Ireland has a breast cancer survival rate of 82%. Sweden has a 7% higher rate and Britain a 5% higher rate. It is not just about geograph…

Ireland is facing a significant economic storm. The threatened tariff war with the United States could do immense damage to the current Irish economic model. Proposed changes to the US corporation tax could be catastrophic in terms of the Irish economy. Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have put all our economic eggs in bargain basement corporation taxes. For sure, FDI is good and needs to be nurtured and promoted, but FDI is more mobile than indigenous businesses and it could move with ease dependin…

That is hardly enough in this regard.

I am asking the Minister what engagement he has had with the senior US Administration? What engagement have the Taoiseach and Tánaiste had with the US Administration-----

-----with regard to trying to mitigate against the damage of a tariff war?

Will the Minister answer the question that I asked today, not the question I asked two months ago, please?

It is a point of amusement that the Minister's instinct is to get tribal every time an Opposition TD puts him under pressure.

It is incredible, when a straight question is asked regarding the engagement the Minister, the Minister for Justice, the Tánaiste or the Taoiseach have had with senior elements of the US Administration, in what is possibly one of the biggest existential economic threats to Ireland at the moment, that in the three or four minutes the Minister had to answer that, the summation of his response was "zero". At this moment in time, the Minister cannot tell me of any senior engagement between his Government and the senior…

I ask the Minister to leave the tribalism aside for one minute and answer the question directly if possible.

With the US.

I said FDI in Ireland is good. I said FDI is positive.

The Minister is arguing a point that nobody has made.

The Minister is arguing a point that nobody has made.