The point made by Deputy Dillon is valid. We are going to see increasing volatility in fossil fuel prices as we move to net zero. Would the Government consider some form of policy that would have a buffer in the tax take so that in times of sharp changes, either up or down, the State would maintain a steady upward drift in the price of fuel but would to some degree insulate people from the short-term volatility?

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister on his handling of the public finances and in particular the flexibility that he and his Department have shown in responding to what has been a very difficult time in spending on new priorities that changed so rapidly. I recall a time when the haggling over even a few thousand euro in his Department would make one blanch but the Department has stepped up to the plate and been able not only to respond but also to come in with very solid public finances at the end.…

While I know that speed is of the essence in rolling out the booster programme, are there plans to ensure the EU-compatible digital Covid certificate, which is the record of vaccination, will include information on the administration of the third dose? As the Taoiseach is aware, for example, from tomorrow, France will require people over a certain age to have had three doses before they can participate in certain activities. There will be a need for the record of this third dose.

On somewhat the same topic, I think we all recognise the anguish of families who have seen the house of their dreams crumble before their eyes because of defective materials. The Government has rightly introduced a scheme which shows solidarity with those people. However, given the scale of this, the cost of which is already €2 billion and rising, does the Tánaiste believe that financial institutions should be contributing towards the cost of such a scheme, given that it is their portfolio of loans which is now bei…

I am grateful to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for allowing this matter to be taken. I congratulate the Minister of State on the progress that has been made on special education, which is truly transformative. We now have four times as many special classes and twice as many special needs assistants, SNAs. We have moved from individual models of assessment and expensive gateways to support to one that is much more of a whole-school approach. The final game changer for me is the proposal developed by the National Council…

I thank the Minister of State and congratulate her on her very accurate appreciation of the benefits of this model. I remember when Eamon Stack, then chair of the NCSE, developed this. He was like a child, so enthusiastic was he about the impact it would have on special education. There is an opportunity to drive this and make it, as the Minister of State said, unique. There is no other best-practice model. This is the best-practice model that can be developed. It does not need assessment by anyone other than the N…

I sympathise with Deputy Whitmore; five or six minutes is too little. Normally, transformative change of the sort we are undertaking is created by some disruptive technology that sweeps everything before it. What is unique about this crisis is that we have to make this transformative change by an act of human or political will. That challenges us all because the task of politicians is to resolve conflict. It is a test of the Opposition as much as Government parties because this is a task for a generation. I have se…

It is the way to go. We need to build prosperity in rural Ireland on the infrastructure of the future. We also need to help farming to do it. There is a major job to be done in persuading the European Union to change the way it approaches agriculture. It does not value the modifications made in respect of methane emissions nearly enough. Farmers should be well rewarded where they make modifications to those emissions. The EU does not recognise our greater efficiency in agriculture, especially dairy, and that needs …

I am taking Deputy Alan Farrell's question. The question I would like to ask the Minister is just how radical she is willing to be in this area. The reality is that memory retention, which is at the heart of the leaving certificate, is distorting teaching and learning. The OECD has reported it is creating a second-rate qualification for our students. We are more than five years on from the start of this reform process and it sounds like it is being pushed further down the road. This is urgent. We need to have equit…

I have two short supplementaries. Could I have the assurance of the Minister that it will not take another five years to implement the changes when they do come out because that would be bitterly disappointing for people who want to see change? Does the Minister agree that the ceiling did not fall in when teachers undertook to assess their own students and that we need to be courageous in advocating and implementing change that allows modern learning and teaching to happen in our schools?

I am concerned at the delay in producing the national retrofitting plan or the retrofitting wave as it is called in Europe. Following the publication of the climate action plan, great interest has been aroused but the fact that people do not know the direction of travel on retrofitting is having a chilling effect. Applications for works are now being postponed. Can we see that retrofitting plan soon so that people can get started on what is a very important challenge for the next decade?

Will the commission consider the capacity of local authorities to deliver? Waterford is the only local authority that delivers on the repair and leasing scheme. In respect of compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, only the Louth local authority delivers on that. Only one third of money due under the vacant site levy is collected by councils. They are slow to get projects on-site. That problem needs to be addressed. It may be about capacity or power. Will the commission examine the issue?

Given that going over these thresholds takes someone from receiving 80% support with his or her rent to zero, when will the cost-rental thresholds and conditions be published? This is what people will have to fall back on if they are not on the eligibility list.

Does the Minister, as a former Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and a former Minister with responsibility for trade, agree that Ireland, as a food exporter with 90% of our produce exported, must aim to be an early mover in respect of earning high margins from climate conscious consumers? Does he also agree there are significant opportunities for family farms to earn income not only from food production to the highest standard, but also from environmental services and climate services? Can the policy to…

I am delighted that we are repeatedly seeing pressure being put on here for quicker delivery of the national broadband plan. Both I and Deputy Naughten know this was fought tooth and nail within the House by people seeking to obstruct it. I raise a serious element of Deputy Naughten's question, specifically the impact this will have on carbon emissions. My experience has been that official Ireland dismissed the transformative impact on carbon emissions that this infrastructure could have. It says something about ou…

Does the Minister of State agree that the key to this potential is developing a stronger electricity network? This week we saw legislation introduced which I am thankful was withdrawn that would have blocked the development of onshore wind. Earlier in this Question Time we heard the dismissal of a review being carried out by the Government - effectively rubbishing it - and the backing of full resistance to the strengthening of our electricity grid. We cannot have it both ways. We cannot hope for green hydrogen and …

The Climate Change Advisory Council has recently added land use to the greenhouse gas inventory, which has to be halved over the next decade. That means we will have to find measures to reduce carbon emissions by an extra 5 million tonnes. I would like to ask the Minister of State what impact that might have on other sectors if that sector itself cannot deliver and what new policy and investment tools will evolve to support the land use changes.

The Minister of State did not advert to the fact that the LULUCF has not been included heretofore in the targets we set for either EU reductions or Irish national reductions. The climate council is advocating that we set a reduction which will mean we have to find 5 million MTCO2e from the land use sector. I want to probe the Minister of State as to what new policy tools and investment measures will allow us do that because failure to meet this new target will fall back onto the other sectors. The climate plan will…

I am delighted to hear that from the Minister of State. I suppose we need to see what will be those mechanisms for paying for making those land use changes. It is important, if those mechanisms are not evolved today, that there is a clear statement that Government will be evolving mechanisms to pay for carbon management, which is effectively what this would be, of the land use. I welcome the Minister of State's announcement that there will be payment to farmers on that front.

I would like to congratulate the Minister of Finance for his achievement not only in putting the economy into a position where we could cope with the challenge of Covid and to do so successfully, with our public finances coming back into order already, but also his very astute handling a very difficult challenge to our corporation tax regime. He has made the correct changes, and made them steadily and gradually over a period so that people have had certainty in the approach that they can take and can have confidenc…