The Government has prioritised reform of the insurance sector to reduce the cost of litigation and ultimately premiums. The PIAB was set up in 2003 to deal with motor liability, employer liability and public liability. It has been successful in reducing both the costs associated with claims and the time taken to resolve claims at no cost to the Exchequer. The PIAB process annually saves tens of millions of euro that would otherwise be paid in legal costs. It has resulted in a significant decline in personal injury …

I had to pinch myself to see whether Housing for All was reality or fiction. Between 2016 and 2021, some €1.877 billion was paid in HAP and €896 million was paid in RAS, but the State does not own any of the properties it has paid for. It has not supplied any houses to make sure people are secure. Landlords are leaving the market and the Government has done nothing about it. It is failure after failure. Even when a person has lived in local authority house for years and is now in a position to buy the house, he or …

A 10% levy on concrete products is a tax on concrete products. However, the Government takes not only the 10% levy it is looking to put on concrete products, including blocks, but also 23% VAT, which is another tax, on products that are delivered to a site for supply only. The Government then takes a further 13% tax if it is supply and fit. Then what does the Government do in a time of crisis? It takes 50% in fuel taxes. Manufacturers of the blocks deliver the blocks and the concrete to your house and the Governmen…

What is the Government proposing to do to protect the tourism industry, which employs 10% of all workers? The 9% VAT rate was a godsend for many hotels. How will the Government protect them against gouging by electricity and gas suppliers, who are making it impossible for hotels to continue operating?

The labour-intensive tourism and hospitality sector provides employment to more than 270,000 people, whose livelihoods depend on tourism. Some 70,000 of those people are directly employed in hotels. That figure had grown to 90,000 in 2018 and 2019 and the hotel industry was hopeful that it would return to pre-pandemic levels, when it generated €12 billion in revenue for the economy. Consider the obstacles that the hotel industry overcame this year. There was a major surge in demand, amounting to 140% of pre-pandemi…

The hotel industry was accused of gouging. However, the Smith Travel Research, STR, report, which provides benchmarking and marketplace insight in a global hospitality industry monitor, stated that the average price of a Dublin hotel room during the high season was €187 and much lower throughout the country. It was definitely much lower in Limerick. For a Fianna Fáil Minister to say publicly that the hospitality industry was guilty of gouging hurt the entire sector. I am glad to say the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, c…

I am not suggesting it in the first place. I am asking where we are going to put our visitors-----

I was not suggesting it in the first place. I am asking the Minister of State where-----

The Minister of State is correct, and he would want to be very careful in how he is suggesting-----

We signed up for women, children and the over 60s.

Males between 20 and 50 are arriving.

Yes, we are. We welcome them.

We welcome them.

I am not. I am saying 20-to-50-year-olds are coming in. We signed up for women and children.

I know, and women and children-----

The Minister of State should behave.

Women and children.

Women and children.

Women and children.

The Minister of State has gone off the topic because he cannot answer the question.