Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Brendan Smith raised a pertinent point on dairy and sheep meat and how the protocol is working generally for the agriculture sector. It seems to me that this is something that is not understood by the British Government particularly with its dual regulatory approach in food traceability which puts a lot of agrifood industries and enterprises at risk if it proceeds with its proposals as announced yesterday. The agricultural interests and the meat and dairy industries that I met are very clear about the negative impact that the Foreign Secretary's proposals would have on the agrifood industry in Northern Ireland. That is what illustrates more than anything the lack of real thinking through of those proposals by the British Government.

Responding to Deputy Boyd Barrett, there is no doubt that the cost of the war is feeding into shortages in materials and so on as did the imbalance in supply and demand occasioned by the bounce-back of the economies after Covid. The war has exacerbated that particularly with the costs in fuel and commodities beyond anything that we have experienced before. That is a big factor in housing inflation.

On Deputy Gino Kenny's points, the last two years have seen record recruitment levels into the HSE front line staff, with nursing, doctors etc. In the junior doctors strike, culture in the medical profession is the key issue. We have had these campaigns where they have been met with increased salaries, as they have before, and promises that the culture would change in how junior doctors are treated but that change has not always transpired. There is a bit more than a pay campaign involved in that and anyone who knows anything about a health service knows what I am talking about. The Minister will engage with the unions on those issues, particularly on the medical side and the junior doctor side and their role in the broader health service.

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