I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. She is absolutely correct on one matter: the cost-of-living crisis is real for households and families in urban and rural Ireland. That is why it requires action, not just at budget time but from this Government on a regular basis, which can be seen in a range of measures. In advance of Christmas, there were more than €4 billion worth of measures to help people with the cost of winter across a range of areas such as lump sum payments, weekly payment increases and…

During that time, I do not know whether she stole Mary Lou's homework or Mary Lou stole hers but we ended up-----

-----in a scenario in which it went ahead and did what Sinn Féin advised and brought in price caps.

In bringing in price caps, she managed to tank the pound.

We will not follow the example of Liz Truss or introduce price caps.

Sinn Féin comes in here on a very regular basis and asks if we have seen the latest ESRI report. It regularly asks Ministers if they have seen what the ESRI said. We could probably paper the walls of this Chamber with ESRI reports Sinn Féin would like us to implement. Has Sinn Féin seen what the energy economist in the ESRI, Muireann Lynch, said only two weeks ago about the Sinn Féin proposal? It was not the Government or Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or the Greens or whoever Sinn Féin wants to pick on today but the ESRI …

-----because they have absolutely no incentive to try to contain those costs ... They know that it's all going to be covered by the Government". The only certainty Sinn Féin's plan would provide is the certainty that the woman in Laois and the woman in Dublin and everybody else watching this programme would have to put their hands in their pockets and hand their money over to the energy companies. This is why-----

This is why we will not bring in a plan that is bad for the economy-----

-----bad for households and bad for the climate. The only people who would benefit would be the energy companies. Instead, what we will do-----

I was shouted down. What we will do instead is legislation for a windfall tax to hit companies where it hurts-----

-----in the pocket and on their profits.

There is a very simple answer to this-----

-----and it is that we are going to introduce a windfall tax.

Deputy Clarke and her party were in favour of this a couple of weeks ago and still are now I think, but I am not sure.

We are going to introduce a windfall tax.

We worked at a European level under the leadership of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in November. We published legislation in March, which we referred to the relevant Oireachtas joint committee. With the co-operation and support of the Deputy and her party for the windfall tax, I hope we will pass it before the summer recess. We will introduce it this year and we will say to these companies, in a very practical way, that if they are going to continue to profiteer on…

This is what we are going to do. What we are not going to do is Trussenomics, where it is decided to put in price caps that-----

I know the Deputies opposite do not care what I say, but the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has suggested this would benefit disproportionately highest-income earners. Did the Deputies see this? It was also suggested that it would actually encourage energy companies to "jack up" their prices, that it would be bad for the climate, bad for energy supply in the European Union-----

-----and that it was tried in the nearest country and it did not work. We will stand with those families mentioned. We have extended the fuel allowance and we have done the lump sum payments. We will continue to support those families. The Deputies opposite can continue to do their sound bites. Unfortunately for them, we saw how this approach worked in the UK.

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising an important issue and one I think is on the minds of people right across this country this week. We had an opportunity in the House yesterday to reflect on the horrific scenes in Dublin and the Deputy is rightly raising the issue in County Clare now. First, I wish to be clear that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is leading an incredible effort to address the largest humanitarian crisis any of us have probably lived through. We are all working tirelessly to support him. There are ve…