Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Bill to allow for the payment of the credit still has to come back to the Dáil. It was amended in the Seanad this week. Subject to it being able to return to the Dáil, which I presume will be next week, the Business Committee will have to decide. That would bring us into early March. It will have to be signed by the President and the various regulations will have to be put in place, so it will be the end of March and into April that we should start seeing bills being adjusted.

In recent days, I was speaking with colleagues in the European Commission about Europe's ability to manage our gas supplies during this crisis. Nothing is certain; we are in a completely uncertain moment.

We are not reliant on Russian gas. Of the gas that we use, only a relatively small percentage, in the low single digits, comes from Russian gas fields. In 2006 and 2009, we went through a similar Russian gas crisis when the pipelines were cut off. At that time, Europe was much weaker. We have improved our systems since then. We are still not protected but I am informed by the Commission officials to whom I spoke yesterday that we will be able to manage. There is latency and capability for us to progress even if some of the gas pipelines are shut off.

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