It must be said by those on all sides that no one can condone the protest outside the Tánaiste's house last weekend. Nothing seems to be out of bounds at the moment. I stand in solidarity with him on this.

I wish to speak about rural Ireland. When I was going to school in 1980, old yellow buses used to bring youngsters to school in all parts of Ireland. With Covid, the capacity of buses was reduced by 50%. Unfortunately, some children have been left behind. This seems to be an annual thing. We have become a more affluent society and we are leaving children behind. As buses in cities are rightly back to operating at full capacity, obviously children can get to school. However, in rural areas, mothers and fathers who need to go to work are trying to solve the problem of bringing their youngsters to school. A few months ago, the Tánaiste and his colleagues decided to vote in new climate change legislation. Now, we are putting more people on the road.

In today's edition of the Irish Farmers' Journal, there is a report in which the Taoiseach and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine speak about stabilising the herd. There is considerable confusion. Youngsters starting out in farming who approach a bank need to know their future and where they are going. Will the Government go back to 100% capacity on buses and sort out the children whose fathers or mothers are now going on the road? If the Government is so interested in climate change, will it sort them out by ensuring that the buses go back to 100% capacity, which will thereby allow them to cater for most of the children who are being transported in cars and SUVs at present?

In light of what is reported in the Irish Farmers' Journal this morning, it is important for farmers and others in rural areas for the Government to indicate if it is staying with the roadmap in respect of nitrates - with different figures for dairy cows, suckler cows, calves, etc. - or if there is a new agenda under the climate legislation. Can we have clarity for those farmers going forward?

Energy prices have soared. You will say that people will get more in their fuel allowance but I am talking about the people who make up middle Ireland here, Taoiseach. They are paying more on fuel to bring their kids to school, paying more to go to work and more to heat their homes. Middle Ireland does not get any of those subsidies. Will you please answer those questions for me?

The Taoiseach is in New York chairing the UN Security Council. I, as Tánaiste, am just the first substitute, in case anyone was not aware of that, but I am happy to be first substitute here today.

First, on the carbon budget, the plan is to stabilise the herd, not reduce it. However, that does mean we have to do a lot in other areas to reduce emissions from agriculture. We do not want to have to reduce the size of the herd or the amount of food produced because all that will then happen is that it will be displaced to other parts of the world where they will produce it less sustainably than we do, and that is not good for the environment. The aim is stabilisation and continuing to produce as much meat and milk as we do now but we will have to do a lot more in sustainability in agriculture to enable us to do that.

The point the Deputy makes about middle Ireland is absolutely right. In the budget we are looking at things like an increase in the fuel allowance and increases in pensions and social welfare so that people can keep up with the rise in the cost of living. It is not an increase; it is really just indexation, and the same thing applies to our working people too. That is why we need pay increases and there will be pay increases in most parts of the economy in the coming year, including the public service, as well as an increase in the minimum wage. That is also why we need tax indexation. These are not tax cuts, as Sinn Féin likes to describe them - it is tax indexation. It is just making sure that if people get that pay increase or increment, they are able to keep it. If they are earning €40,000, which is roughly the average income, and they get a pay increase of 2%, that is €800. At the moment, someone would lose half of that in tax and would only get €400. That is not enough to keep up with the rise in the cost of living. With indexation, they will keep most of that €800. They will get €650 or €700. That is the whole point of indexation. It is not a tax cut. It is just making sure that middle Ireland holds on to whatever small pay increase or increment they get. In the same way as we increase pensions or welfare to take account of the rise in the cost of living, we should do the same when it comes to income tax and that is what indexation is. It is not a tax cut.

That is not what IFAC says.

It is just making sure that middle Ireland is not left out and that is why I am sure the Deputy will be supporting that measure in the budget.

Regarding school transport, to date over 100,000 tickets have been issued for children availing of transport on primary and post-primary school transport schemes, which is an increase of 7% on the tickets issued this time last year. Planning for school transport for the 2021-22 school year has proceeded on the basis that the public health measures in place when schools closed at the end of the last school year would remain as the term began in this new school year. These include recommendations from public health that post-primary services operate at 50% capacity. All other measures relating to hygiene, preassigned seating, cleaning and the wearing of masks by post-primary students are also in place. However, as the vaccination programme for children on post-primary services is rolled out and the lifting of restrictions on public transport services proceeds, the capacity limit of 50% on post-primary school transport services will be subject to ongoing review. The Department will make a decision on that in the coming weeks.

If we are interested in talking about climate change, the first thing we should be doing, as a minimum requisite, is saying to all school-going children in rural Ireland or, indeed, in the cities, that there is a ticket there for them. We should not have cars or the SUVs or whatever going up and down the road with one child in them. That is the first common-sense thing. It is not going to rob the bank because there is plenty of money wasted in this country. That is the first thing.

I welcome what the Tánaiste said about tax and the other measures in the budget but there are more than public service workers in rural Ireland. There are private operators, people who set up their own businesses and people working in the private sector. I understand that the tax system the Tánaiste talked about will help them but the reality of it is, with electricity over the last year, heating their homes and transport for going to work, these people are probably about €1,200 out of pocket. That is what we need to be talking about.

The Tánaiste spoke about stabilising the national herd. I want clarification on this. Will young farmers who are starting up-----

Deputy, we are out of time.

-----be allowed and able to go into stocking if they want to? Is it going to be on the nitrates, with X amount of units per hectare, like it was proposed, or is there a new system coming?

I cannot answer that question today. The carbon budget and climate action plan are not agreed yet but they will be agreed in the next couple of weeks and hopefully that will give certainty not just to people in agriculture but to people across the economy and across our society. We as a Government want young people going into farming. We want them to know that this is a career, a livelihood and a lifestyle that they can have. We want Ireland to continue to be a food producer. I am proud of the fact that this is a country that produces enough food to feed 45 or 50 million people, which is nine times our population. I do not think we would achieve anything in terms of food security or climate by producing less food. That food is going to be needed. There will be an increased demand for food across the world and we produce it more sustainably than others. We are going to have to produce it more sustainably again but it would be a retrograde step if we produced less food and then had other countries produce it for us in a way that would be much less sustainable.