Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I would like to raise the energy cost crisis going into the winter time. If we will have an over reliance on England and France for gas at a time when a bag of coal here could be easily facing into €40, €45 and going on to €50 at Christmas time, people will go cold in their homes this winter because they will not be able to afford to keep themselves warm. There is none more urgent crisis than that and that is certainly something that needs to concentrate the minds of all of us.

Another issue of great importance is the fact that we here in Ireland are rightly doing everything we can to help the good people from Ukraine who are in crisis and who need shelter, who need security and who need to be in a safe place. Something I touched on earlier is that, while we are doing everything we can, it is a considerable cost and the richer countries should be looking at a way of helping us at this time and trying to assist us in the significant burden that this will put on taxpayers here. Everybody is more than willing to play their part but there are countries that are richer and have far greater resources than we have. That is something that should be looked at going into the future.

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