I will but it will be ten minutes each. Budget 2024 is primarily a cost-of-living budget. With high energy prices and the ongoing impacts of the war in Ukraine, the measures brought forward in this budget and announced by my colleagues, the Ministers, Deputies Michael McGrath and Donohoe, are designed to cushion the impact of continuing high inflation by increasing the amount of money in people's pockets through targeted taxation and related cost-of-living measures. I am conscious of the impact that high inflation …

We are changing that.

The Deputy might focus on policy rather than people.

It is kind of beneath him.

This is a Chamber to discuss policy.

It is the biggest CAP budget ever.

It is.

I move: (1) THAT for the purposes of the tax charged by virtue of section 72 of the Finance Act 2005 (No. 5 of 2005), that Act be amended, with effect as on and from 11 October 2023, by substituting the following for Schedule 2 to that Act (as amended by section 47 of the Finance Act 2022 (No. 44 of 2022)): “SCHEDULE 2 RATES OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS TAX (With effect as on and from 28 September 2022) " (2) IT is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect u…

I can give the Deputy some estimated numbers on that.

I thank everybody for taking part in the discussion. Smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland. Approximately 4,500 people per year die because of preventable diseases caused by smoking. We have an obligation to use whatever policy and taxation tools we have to encourage young and not-so-young people away from smoking. One of those tools is to make purchasing cigarettes and tobacco more expensive, though it is not the only one. We have introduced fairly significant legislation, the Public H…

I will take that. The Government plans to introduce a new collective redundancies legislation in the next few weeks. It will not deal with all of the issues the Deputy raised but it will certainly deal with some of them. We will have an opportunity to work through both committee and debate in this House to try and get that legislation as right as we can.

We are constantly trying to improve the response times and the efficiency of the system in bringing workers from outside the EU into Ireland and if there are constructive suggestions that we can take on board to improve the system, I am all ears. If the Deputy wants to send them to me, we will happily respond.

First, I welcome Mr. Barry Ryan and wish him well with his new role. I also welcome Deputy McDonald back to full health. It is good to have her back. The Government will not support the Sinn Féin mortgage interest relief motion this evening. The day to make a decision regarding how we respond to mortgage holders who are under serious financial pressure is budget day, and we will do that. The Ministers for Finance and Social Protection have both made it clear that they are looking at ways in which we can support hou…

In regard to the Deputy's last point, homeowners have a right to hear what the Government proposes to do in terms of supporting them, particularly those who are under significant financial difficulty because of interest rate hikes. The day to do that will be on budget day in three weeks' time rather than this evening. The Government will do that. In regard to the broader housing question, a lot of self-righteous rhetoric is coming from Deputy McDonald on housing. Her own party's performance in Northern Ireland on s…

First, I think the Deputy is misrepresenting the decision to abolish dairy quotas, when that was made as part of a Common Agricultural Policy reform quite a number of years ago. I stand over that decision; it was the right decision at the time and it is the right decision now. Many dairy farms in Ireland were operating in a straitjacket, unable to fulfil their potential in terms of their dairy herds, and the vast majority of dairy farmers who have grown productivity and production since then have done so in a susta…

With respect, subsidies already support farmers in more environmentally sustainable practices. They already do that. This is what Pillar 2 is all about. This is also a big aspect of Pillar 1 payments now. It is about ensuring we get an acceptable benchmark in environmental protections-----

What I will not do is let the Deputy try to drive a wedge between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on this issue. We have-----

We met the leadership-----

If Members do not want to hear the answer that is the problem, which says an awful lot.

If people want to laugh at the impact that changes in the nitrates derogation is having on farmers, good luck to you. The Irish Farmers Association leadership made a reasonable ask of the Taoiseach last Friday. It said that before any decisions were made by the European Commission, it would like to meet, face to face, in Ireland with the key decision maker on the nitrates derogation. The Taoiseach has said that he will facilitate that meeting and he will, supported by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Mari…