I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I begin by acknowledging the events of the past week. A lot of people have been in contact with me and my office and I acknowledge their concern. People are understandably worried. The ongoing war in Iran is having real and serious consequences for households and businesses across the country and the pressures of energy costs, fuel costs and supply chains are being felt everywhere. It would be wrong to pretend otherwise. I welcome the Government's €750 million support package approved by Dáil Éireann today. For context, it is one of the most significant responses in Europe and more than ten times the level of support being provided by the Northern Ireland Executive, for example. The package is a meaningful intervention that will help shield families and businesses from the worst of what is coming. However, we have to be honest. The months ahead will be difficult and challenging. There are no easy solutions to a crisis of this scale, and people deserve straight talk rather than false reassurance. I also want to say something about the protests we have seen. The right to protest is fundamental, and I respect it absolutely. I thank the gardaí who had to operate in challenging environments trying to balance legitimate protest with the need to ensure critical supplies continued to move. I also thank our front-line workers, the retail workers, transport workers and many others who quietly kept things going over the past week. Their contribution should not go unnoticed. Clearly, we all want to see this war end. Every day it continues brings more suffering in the region and here at home. If this crisis has underlined anything, it is how exposed we remain as a country when critical infrastructure is not in place at the scale we need it. That is why this Bill matters and that is why I support it. The case for accelerating offshore wind development has never been stronger. We need to move quickly and with urgency. I am on record in this House as saying I felt that the previous Minister with responsibility for energy did not treat energy security or, indeed, expanding public transport with the urgency it required. This is an opportunity to correct that. We need to be ambitious. There is an undeniable case for enhanced supports for solar, which needs to be deployed quickly and deliver real resilience at household and community level. We also need to have a serious national conversation about what happens post-Corrib gas, for example. When Corrib runs out, possibly next year, we are simply going to become completely dependent on imported gas with no domestic alternative whatsoever. That is not a credible energy policy. We need energy security and certainty and we need a robust plan. Legislation alone will not get us through this. What will, though, is willingness across the House and across the country to face hard choices honestly together. This Bill is a step in that right direction.

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