I also wish to discuss the issue of security. Up to now we have lived in a time of unprecedented peace and security in Europe, including energy security and food security. All of that seems to be questionable and questioned now.

I agree with the Tánaiste's vision of bringing offshore energy onto our western shores and storing it in the form of hydrogen because obviously we cannot store energy. I do not know if he has spoken to some of the people involved, but the technology to do it is not there now. Everybody is hopeful, even confident, that it will be there, but it is not there now. There is technology for anchored turbines, but they are primarily suitable for the east coast. Any turbines off the west coast will have to be floating. There is an appropriately named high winds platform off the coast of Scotland, but the technology just is not there for what is proposed off the west coast now.

I share the Tánaiste's optimism. I greatly look forward to when Moneypoint is not burning coal and when vast volumes of wind energy are being turned into hydrogen and stored there. Perhaps we could be self-sufficient in car and vehicle fuel as well, but that is all down the road. Is the Government going to decommission the biggest power station in this country before we have an alternative? That is what it is currently planning.

The Tánaiste mentioned the nine new gas power stations, with one in Northern Ireland and eight here. When they were announced, they were to be built by 2024. Where are they and how are we going to buy the gas that is going to fuel them if gas prices rise? The vast majority of the energy that fuels Germany, the biggest economy in the European Union, comes from Russia.

We mentioned LNG, but I understand that America imports Russian gas. It uses LNG but it also imports gas from Russia. I do not think the Americans are talking about the same level of sanctions that we are. What is the plan for energy security in this State? What is the plan for food security? Ukraine has a population of 40 million and produces enough food to feed 600 million. Obviously, it is expected that there is going to be an interruption in that food production, which will lead to a huge increase in food prices. For millennia, we have always produced enough food in this State to feed the people here, but that does not mean people did not go hungry because they could not afford food. Farmers are facing unprecedented costs. The biggest exporter of fertiliser in the world is Russia while Belarus is a major exporter as well. The biggest exporter of grain in the world is Russia and Ukraine is a major exporter. Both the rising cost of grain and fertiliser will have a knock-on cost for farmers and unless the Government helps with the cost this year, they are going to have to pass it on next year. We are looking at a real possibility of food shortages across western Europe. What, if any, is the Government's plan?

The Deputy is correct that these are emerging technologies, but they are not that far away. There is enormous confidence that we can do what we want to do off the west coast, which is a floating offshore wind plant plugging into Moneypoint and Tarbert where the grid connection exists and where we can store wind energy in the form of battery power and hydrogen. It is not our intention to close Moneypoint or Tarbert until we are ready to do so.

I do not like the fact we are burning coal in Moneypoint, I do not like the fact we are burning oil in Tarbert, but we do actually need to do so and we may need to do so for many years to come. Those plants will not be decommissioned until we are confident we are able to replace them with secure supply and secure renewables. That might take a bit of time but that is very much the plan.

In regard to food security, I do not believe there are going to be food shortages. I appreciate the Deputy raising the concern but I do not believe that is going to be the case. It is true that both Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of food, particularly of grain, but so are we. I am proud of the fact we live in a country where our farmers and our food industry produce nine times more food than we need. It is all part of an international market. In that context, where we produce nine times more food than we need, we do not need to be concerned about food security or shortages here in Ireland.

Prices may rise, and the Deputy is right about that. Inputs, energy costs, fertiliser - the price of all of those things is soaring, and we know that. I know farmers are telling the Deputy that and they are telling me that too. We will try to help farmers in any way we can but we also need to be realistic. These are international developments. The price of energy is going to rise and that will have a knock-on effect on the price of food and the price of other things. The Government has intervened to help and will continue to intervene to help, but we need to be realistic too. We are still a country that is not balancing the books at the moment. Borrowing the people's money to help them out is ultimately self-defeating, and we have to be cautious as to what we do in that regard.

I welcome the Tánaiste's new-found concern about borrowing the people's money to help them out. To go back to the issue of food security, I never suggested we would have such food shortages in Ireland. I said we would have food shortages in western Europe and that is going to lead to huge price increases in Ireland. Is there a plan for that? What I do not want, in 12 months time, is to see one section of the economy or society pitched against another, with people finding they are being priced out of basic food products and farmers saying they simply cannot produce the food for any less. Prices are rising but we know farmers in Ireland are very much at the mercy of multinationals and they are producing on a very tight margin. That is my concern. There is a horrible precedent for Ireland producing a lot of food yet people not having food in Ireland. I want to know the Government is planning for that now to make sure that does not arise and we will not see food produced in Ireland being out of the reach of Irish consumers because of pressures on farmers. It is not that they are profiteering from this; very far from it.

I welcome the reality around Moneypoint.

The Deputy makes a very reasonable point around the cost of food. Like him, I do not believe food security or food shortages are going to be a problem, in Ireland anyway. However, if what is happening with energy prices continues and if what is happening in Russia and Ukraine unfolds, then there is a real probability that the price of food will go up here in Ireland and in western Europe. We have benefited from cheap food for a very long time. I think the price of food is going to go up, and the question is how we deal with that. That is going to be about helping farmers with costs, and we will do that, but it is also going to be about incomes policy. There has to be a recognition that if the price of things rises, if the cost of living rises, then incomes are going to have to rise as well. I know that when we wrote the budget back in September, we planned the budget based on the idea that inflation would be somewhere between 2% and 3%. We have to acknowledge that, when it comes to the next budget, we are in a different place and that will have to be reflected in what we do in terms of pensions, the welfare package, personal taxation and incomes policy.