I fully agree with Deputy Ward. I thank him for raising what is an incredibly important issue. I see it in my community and, of course, he also sees it in his, probably most particularly on the DART line. Not to justify it, but this has certainly arisen as a result of a huge disparity in facilities at stations and access points across the country, particularly in the context of the many stations that were designed and built in the Victorian era. We are absolutely committed to improving accessibility. There has been…

First of all, I have not seen the programme yet and I did not hear any of the material on radio this morning; I did not get the opportunity. The first thing I will do is get an opportunity to see the programme itself. I will not see it live tonight. I am at a function this evening but I hope to get an opportunity. I will get to see it. It is difficult to pre-empt seeing the entirety of it. Deputy McDonald is asking me to comment before the programme airs. That is problematic - day one. The second point is that ther…

Did anyone in Government know what was going on?

The specific allegations with respect of those who have made protected disclosures - I cannot interfere in a protected disclosure.

I cannot interfere.

The Deputy knows that. The Deputy has asked me to override, just now, the entire whistleblowers Act. That is what she has done.

What is she asking me, so?

The Deputy is trying to make it political-----

She is trying to land it-----

as she always does.

The Deputy is interfering again and interrupting me. This is what she always does. I think the first thing we should do-----

With the greatest of respect, if we had a bit more whistleblowing in Sinn Féin a long time ago, we would have all been better off.

But could I just make the point, I think the first thing that has to happen-----

No, sorry, it is not actually, but the first thing I want to say is we need to watch the programme this evening. I will watch it in its entirety. That is the first thing. I worked with previous whistleblowers. I worked with Maurice McCabe extensively, but I think it is important. It is also important to get a response from An Garda Síochána. What is An Garda Síochána's response to the programme this evening? That has to happen.

The energy crisis is fundamentally a global, external situation in terms of war in the Middle East, particularly the war in Iran and now the situation in Yemen with the Houthis gaining control of key ports and potentially a key waterway. It is compounding what has happened in respect of the Ukraine crisis and the massive increase in inflation and energy prices that arose from that. In the first instance, the scale of the Government's response has been very significant, at about €1.4 billion to date. No windfall tax…

Of course it is immoral to exploit any emergency such as that we are experiencing right now. It is absolutely immoral for any part of the supply chain, be it a wholesaler, retailer or anybody else, to exploit the international crisis to extract more from people. In respect-----

Take it handy. There is no evidence that putting on a windfall tax would reduce any prices. We did it during the last crisis and prices did not reduce. However, its merit is in bringing some revenue back to the Government in terms of any windfall gains that were made. It does not have wide prevalence in respect of who in this country we could hit. We are not blessed with massive oil or energy companies. We also have issues around refining and so on, which we have to be careful about, frankly, on the supply side. It…

The Deputy knows what happens when a protected disclosure is made. It does not go to the officeholder. It does not go to a Minister and it does not go to An Taoiseach. The Deputy knows that well. Why try to distort it? Let us get to the truth here; that is fine. It is reprehensible for any whistleblower to be intimidated or punished. I have no time for any of that. If the Deputy is serious about and honest in what she is saying, she should not be asking me questions that she knows well the answer to.

That is dishonest politics.

I have not seen the programme and I have not met the whistleblowers. The Deputy has.