Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I would certainly like to hear more on that from the Minister, but on the Taoiseach's lack of presence here, of course he must represent the country abroad, but we had understood he would be here today and it is a common courtesy that we would be notified in advance of Leaders' Questions when he is not taking them.

On the Minister's response, we absolutely support retrofitting. In fact, what we in the Labour Party have been critical of is the delay in the roll-out of affordable retrofitting. Around the country, people are frustrated at the delay on retrofitting, missed targets on retrofitting and a lack of affordability, just as people are frustrated about the delay in the roll-out of renewables. We want to see renewable capacity ramped up at great scale. All of us are frustrated at the delays. The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, was established some time ago. We supported that in opposition, but we are still seeing such delay in offshore development.

In the meantime, this is about fairness. It is about reshaping priorities so that those who have profited most from the crisis will pay their share rather than seeing the burden of energy costs pushed back on working people and on families and households.

The Labour Party has put forward a series of supports and is simply asking the Government to adopt them.

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