First, I express my support for the stance taken by Government and Ireland with regard to the Ukraine crisis. I applaud what we have done in waiving visa restrictions and allowing Ukrainian people to come here and avail of employment at the earliest opportunity.

I will raise an issue with the Tánaiste that was raised with me. It relates to some vacant property, particularly holiday homes, that people might be of a mind to make available to Ukrainian people. These people are wondering whether it is possible for them to do so without creating tenancy rights or whether they can provide short-term letting arrangements. Perhaps the Government could take a look at this because we have a difficulty with regard to how we are going to accommodate a significant number of Ukrainian refugees.

I will go on to talk about the agriculture and food industry, which has been an indigenous champion of this economy for many years. It is the bulwark of our rural economy and the basis for regional regeneration. My concerns are building. I am reflecting concerns I am hearing that our climate policy appears to be muddled with regard to where we are going with agriculture. It would not be a far stretch to say that potentially there is some confrontation building in public opinion between the agricultural sector and the needs of climate change.

As we are well aware, we have a commodities crisis at the moment, not least because Russia and Ukraine produce almost 30% of the world's wheat, 8% of the world's grain and 60% of the world's sunflower oil between them. All of this is going to feed into primary producer prices and the retail supply prices. As the Tánaiste will know, there is also a significant issue in respect of fertiliser. Russia is by far the largest manufacturer of fertiliser and sanctions are now driving up a price that has already increased by 300% this year to date. This will have an effect on productivity and on output and will certainly have an effect on pricing. The farming sector has been raising this issue for some time but little regard has been had to the matter. The increase in prices for energy in May the Government has committed to and the increase in the price of fossil fuels will also put extreme pressure on this sector.

I also highlight to the Tánaiste some issues affecting forestry. Despite the work the Government has done, we are still way behind in processing licences. Almost 70% of licences that are being processed are licences for Coillte, in other words for the State sector, at the expense of looking after rural and regional farmers who have invested in forestry.

I will also bring up the issue of wind energy. We know that a regulatory maritime institution will not be developed for another two years but there is a process ongoing at the moment with regard to an onshore wind development near the south-east coast within 5 km of the shore. No regard seems to have been given to developing this project offshore, as has been done in Scotland. As a Deputy from the south east, I will be in the vanguard in objecting to onshore wind in the UNESCO site in County Waterford. We need to look at developing that facility offshore.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet the six main farming organisations in Government Buildings. We organised the meeting as a regular round table to talk about Brexit, Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform and climate action. As the Deputy can imagine and as is often the case, events overtake us. Most of the meeting was about Ukraine, the cost of inputs, the rising cost of fuel and fertiliser, and how that will impact food prices and farm incomes. This afternoon at 2 o'clock the Taoiseach will chair a special meeting of Ministers. We will consider three matters. First is the humanitarian response and how we can assist Ukrainians who come to Ireland and more importantly how can we assist the millions of Ukrainians who will not come to Ireland but will be refugees in other parts of Europe. Second is sanctions and the political response. Can we do more to show our support for Ukraine and our opposition to the Russian Federation and Belarus? Third is how we can deal with the economic impact of another economic shock so soon after the last one. How will we help households with rising bills? How can we help farmers with rising input costs? How can we help the business sector? There is only so much that Government can do, but there are things that Government can do. We will consider them this afternoon and I look forward to reporting back to the Dáil next week if I have the opportunity.

I got a really good note from Minister of State, Senator Hackett, on forestry licensing the other day. After years of frustration - I know the frustration is by no means gone - there is real evidence of an uptick in the number of licences being granted. I might send that note on to the Deputy because for the first time in a very long time I had some hope that we were making some sort of progress.

That is for cutting trees, not for planting.

It is for both, actually.

It is not.

It seems that one of the problems with the planting is that while licences are being issued, not all are being used.

I will reflect on what the Tánaiste said. However, as I said, the majority of licences are for felling and are being prioritised for Coillte and not for these small farmers who are trying to get afforestation licences, get roads built and get their own felling done.

I return to climate policy for a minute. While I am certainly not against it, we need a reappraisal of it. As far as I am aware, the Government has not revised the policy on increases to fossil fuel prices in May. That would be a very retrograde step for inflation. I believe the maritime area regulatory authority, MARA, will not be developed for two years or longer. We have still not discussed where we are going with a wind port in this country. We need to designate wind ports and Rosslare is the obvious one. There are clear benefits to housing in Dublin by reducing some of the capacity in Dublin Port. This needs to be seriously considered.

I know the Tánaiste is aware of issues with the N24 and I understand the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will take a call in the morning on it. We need the N24 and N25 roads upgraded to improve connectivity for the south east and to give us some regional competitiveness. There has been no investment in those two roads in over 20 years.

As an aside regarding forestry, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is working on a new scheme to allow farmers to plant small plantations of trees. It is very small, but still significant if everyone does it. We would like to see farmers using a small part of their land for small plantations, ideally with native broadleaf trees. She is introducing that and allowing them to avoid the existing licensing system for doing that.

I believe MARA will be up and running much sooner than in two years' time. Hopefully, it will be set up in interim form in its new headquarters in Wexford this year and will be operational for real next year. I agree that we need to invest in Rosslare Europort when it comes to wind energy. We will have many offshore wind installations off the east coast as well as off the west coast, but initially off the east coast. We want to ensure that the turbines come from Irish ports and not from English or Welsh ports, not that I have anything against English or Welsh ports, but we would like to use our own ports. Investment in Rosslare will be crucial in that regard.