Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Deputy Conway-Walsh to the leader's seat. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to engage with another member of Sinn Féin, particularly one from Erris, a part of the country I know well. It is always a pleasure to have a disagreement or an agreement on occasion with people from that part of the world.

The situation in Ukraine is, as people will appreciate, unprecedented. We came through the shock of a pandemic that nobody could have predicted and thought we were going to enter a period of relative stability and normality. Vladimir Putin, by his actions, has upended all of that. We are now facing another shock in terms of prices, particularly for energy. There will be a meeting of senior Ministers this afternoon and there will be an opportunity to study a number of things, including how we can assist Ukraine, in both our political response and our humanitarian response, and Ukrainians who may come here. There will also be a discussion on what else we need to do or are able to do to help households, businesses and farmers that are going to affected by the sanctions and the economic disruption caused by the crisis in Ukraine.

Ireland does not have a lot of direct trade with Ukraine, Belarus or Russia, but there will be indirect effects. Even though the coal in Moneypoint now comes from Colombia, not Russia, and our gas supplies do not come from Russia, the impact of Russian gas being slowed or potentially even being shut off will cause price rises and is already doing so. We have seen the prices of oil, petrol, diesel and fertiliser rise significantly in the past couple of weeks.

In terms of what we need to do, first, we must implement the actions the Government has already announced. That includes the €200 being deducted from people's electricity bills. People will see that in the next couple of weeks and certainly by the end of April. The additional money for the most vulnerable households, the extra €125 in the fuel allowance, is being paid at present. We will have to give consideration to any further actions we may need to take. However, it must be borne in mind that the underlying cost of energy, coal, petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and home heating oil is not something we control. That is rising more and more and the portion of that which is taxation is falling as a consequence - not the raw amount but the portion that is taxation. We will see what we can do in that context. There will be some co-ordination at European level as well. Discussions in that regard are under way.

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