The past four weeks have witnessed the illegal and unprovoked war of extermination launched by Vladimir Putin's Russia against the people of Ukraine. The world, in particular Europe, has changed and nothing will be the same again and we have to give most serious consideration, both as an Oireachtas and as a people, to a broad range of issues that will flow from this terrible aggression.

I wish to deal with our immediate response to the humanitarian crisis that has resulted in the displacement within Ukraine and across Europe of 10 million Ukrainians so far. Although we are on the edge of Europe, we expect to welcome to our shores up to 200,000 refugees. We must be ready today and each coming day to receive properly these desperate and traumatised people, who are coming here for refuge.

I wish to discuss the port of Rosslare in my constituency. In a most welcome and generous gesture, Stena Line is offering free passage aboard its vessels to Ireland. On Monday, more than 180 people – Ukrainians fleeing terror and arriving in Rosslare – availed of this facility. Another Stena Line boat will arrive from Cherbourg tomorrow and a larger vessel, the Stena Estrid, will arrive from Cherbourg on Saturday. It is expected that many hundreds of Ukrainian refugees will arrive on these ships and the ones to follow.

However, although there is amazing and heart-warming goodwill from local community volunteers, local authority staff, the Garda Síochána, the Department of Social Protection and many others, there is a clear lack of co-ordination at the port – a lead agency, someone to be in charge, to co-ordinate that goodwill. We need a strong physical presence from the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS. There must be comprehensive Covid testing for staff and those arriving. Already, some support staff have had to isolate because of the latest Covid wave. There must be sheltered areas to deal with traumatised people away from busy port activity. We are mostly talking about women and children who are arriving in an alien and foreign country and into a busy working port.

There is also a need for practical assistance, including guidance on car insurance. People who have driven across Europe are arriving with cars but instantly have no insurance. There is a need for cash for fuel and personal requisites, support for medicines and prescriptions, SIM cards and power adapters – all the normal things that people need. Many people fled their homes with just the clothes they were standing in. We need to wrap supports around them.

In the coming days, hundreds, or perhaps thousands, more refugees will be arriving at our ports. We need to recognise that those areas are becoming war refugee zones and we have to prepare accordingly. Will the Minister set out the Government's plans?

I thank Deputy Howlin for raising this issue and I acknowledge the manner in which he has done so. We all share his sentiments about the appalling atrocities in Ukraine that we are witnessing on our television screens, scenes that we believed belonged to a bygone era. Ireland is going to do everything it can to support the Ukrainian refugees who come to our country. We will welcome them with open arms. This is being led by the extraordinary response of the Irish people and the goodwill and generosity they have demonstrated to date in the offers of support and accommodation.

As of yesterday, 10,414 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland and almost 5,000 have sought emergency accommodation from the IPAS. The IPAS has contracted more than 2,500 hotel rooms, with additional capacity being pursued through hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfasts. Work is ongoing to work through the 20,000 offers of accommodation that we have received through the portal that was set up by the Government in partnership with the Red Cross. We will be availing of many of these offers in the days and weeks ahead. We are also considering State-owned and private properties that may be suitable for short-term accommodation, religious properties and any property under the control of our local authorities.

Deputy Howlin raised the issue of Rosslare Europort on the floor of the House yesterday during statements in advance of the European Council meeting. I recognise the efforts of the local groups on the ground that have been meeting refugees as they arrive at Rosslare Europort and assisting them in every way they can. To date, 879 of the arrivals from Ukraine have arrived via Rosslare Europort. The port has been working with various State agencies – the Garda, the Departments of Social Protection and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Wexford County Council and Civil Defence – as well as the Red Cross and local charities to provide people with the immediate support they need by way of temporary protection, accommodation, access to social welfare etc.

However, we acknowledge the point that the Deputy has raised about the need for a greater level of co-ordination to ensure that the process works as efficiently and seamlessly as possible. In that respect, the Department of the Taoiseach is co-ordinating a group that has been tasked with putting in place enhanced arrangements at Rosslare Europort to accommodate Ukrainian refugees arriving there. The key services to be provided are those under the responsibilities of the Departments I have named, as well as the Department of Justice. The intention is to put in place as quickly as possible a large reception centre close to the port because, as the Deputy mentioned, it is a busy working port. Insofar as we can, the model will replicate the successful model that is in operation at Dublin Airport.

I warmly welcome that, but it needs to be in place for tomorrow, which is when the next Cherbourg boat arrives.

The Minister will recall that our response to Brexit was to put customs officials and agents on board ferry vessels so that, by the time truck drivers arrived here, all the paperwork had been done. Surely we need to put cross-departmental teams on board the ferries. The 18-hour crossing affords us the opportunity to undertake registrations, Covid tests and assess accommodation needs so that, when people arrive after those 18 or 20 hours, the work is done and does not need to be commenced here. Teams could be deployed at our departure ports and on board those ferries.

The co-ordination is welcome and I hope it can be in place tomorrow. Many disparate groups are desperately trying to do good but without co-ordination, so it needs to be in place immediately. As well as that, much of the work could be done on board the ferries. Will this matter be addressed by the Government?

It is important to recognise that Ukrainian refugees arriving at the port are being looked after. That is thanks in no small part to the fantastic efforts of local community groups. State actors are also directly involved and are providing the essential supports to the refugees. I assure the Deputy that this specific issue is being treated with the urgency it deserves. There was a meeting as recently as this morning on seeking to co-ordinate the State's response at its points of entry, including Rosslare Europort. I assure the Deputy that this will be done as quickly as possible.

The Deputy has raised the issue of having State personnel on board the ships. This will be considered by the group that is being led by the Department of the Taoiseach.

There is a whole-of-government approach to dealing with the situation and ensuring that Ukrainian refugees are given every possible assistance and support that they need.

While the people of this country are showing extraordinary solidarity and generosity in terms of the terrible suffering of the Ukrainian people, they are simultaneously being crucified by the spiralling costs of living, electricity and gas prices, energy prices and so on. The latest bad news in that regard is the ESRI report that the rate of inflation will hit 8.7% this summer. People's incomes and savings and their ability to pay their bills are being wiped out. In the face of this, the Government and, I stress, other European governments and the American Government, all of which will be meeting in Europe this week, are saying that they are more or less powerless and that there is nothing they can do, even more so now because of the Ukraine war.

Is the Minister familiar with the concept of war profiteering? I suggest he, the Government and the EU leaders make themselves familiar with this concept. War profiteering is a disgusting practice whereby ordinary people are asked to endure incredible hardship, financial and otherwise, as a result of war but where private companies and businesses make superprofits at the expense of everybody else's misery, exploiting the crisis and the war. I suggest to the Minister that this is what we are seeing across the world. We are seeing war profiteering on an industrial scale by the producers of fuel and energy and the suppliers of fuel and energy, globally, in Europe and in this country and the bill for that is being picked up in terms of the extreme hardship, energy poverty and so on that people are suffering.

I will give some facts in regard to the profits of these companies. The profits of the French company, TotalEnergies, are up 300% to €16.1 billion; BP's profits have increased to €13 billion, its highest profits in eight years; Shell's profits are up to €19 billion, again the highest in eight years; Chevron Corporation's profits are up to €15 billion; ExxonMobil's profits are up to €23 billion and the profits of Aramco, the Saudi company, are up 124% to €110 billion. This is mirrored in this country with the ESB's profits up 10% to €679 million and Energia's profits up 46% to €35 million. What is the Government going to do about that? While everybody else is being told to suffer, to endure hardship, these energy companies and petrol companies are making a fortune. If the European leaders who are meeting this week in Europe can take unprecedented action to impose sanctions on Putin's bloody regime, could they not take unprecedented action to stop the war profiteering that we are seeing from energy and electricity companies and the producers of petrol and gas across Europe to control the prices such that ordinary people are suffering?

I thank the Deputy. It may well be the case that there are companies that are profiteering on the back of the current international climate around energy prices. Those issues are not entirely within the control of any government or of the European Union acting as a collective. The European Union leaders, when they meet at European Council tomorrow and Friday, will be examining this issue in the round, inclusive of the issue of energy prices that is having such an impact on our people, households and businesses and our economies. As the Deputy will know, we are seeing a significant increase in the wholesale prices in the markets. That is a reality that suppliers, distributors and retailers are having to face.

The week before last I was part of a delegation of Ministers who met a number of the key stakeholders operating in the sector in Ireland, including Fuels for Ireland, which is a representative body, and the Irish Petrol Retailers Association. We had a lengthy and good discussion with them about the challenges, how the markets are working and how the prices are feeding their way through from the wholesale level through to the level being paid by the consumer on the ground.

The Deputy mentioned the issue of the ESB. As he will know, the Government is a significant beneficiary of any profits earned by the ESB. In the past ten years, the Government has received €1.2 billion in dividends from the ESB. The ESB is on a green transition which involves major capital investment over the next number of years of the order of €2 billion per annum to be invested to assist us as a country on that journey. The ultimate insurance policy in terms of this issue is our reduced dependence on fossil fuels and our reduced dependence on us being an importer of energy. That is why the Government is excited by the potential of floating offshore wind. Over the next number of years, we will see major initiatives in that regard. We have already passed the enabling legislation, the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021. A new regulatory and licensing regime is now being put in place by the Ministers, Deputies Eamon Ryan and Darragh O'Brien. We look forward to seeing the progress of that over the period ahead.

What we are experiencing here as a result of, first, Covid and now, the appalling invasion of Ukraine, is an international market where the normal balance between supply and demand has been completely disrupted. This has resulted in a significant increase in prices that consumers in this country and throughout the world are facing. The Deputy will have heard me say earlier on the record that the rate of inflation in the UK today is 6.2% and in the United States, it is almost 8%. The suggestion that we as a small open trading economy can deal with this issue entirely on our own is just not realistic.

The point I am making is that collectively, the Irish Government and the European and American governments do have the power. It is a power that was used during the Second World War, whereby profiteering was stopped and the State took control of energy and other vital supplies in order to control prices. Under the current regime, even if we do develop more renewable energy it will not reduce the prices. I will set out some facts. Europe now produces most of its electricity from renewable resources in Europe and most of our gas comes from Corrib in Ireland. Most of our electricity - over 50% - is produced here but because we have given it over to the control of private companies, they charge what they like. They are profiteering and governments in this country and in Europe choose to do nothing about that. They can impose sanctions but, apparently, they cannot control the profiteering of energy companies in this country and in Europe. I suggest they can but they refuse to do so because, it seems, for this Government and for the governments of Europe, profits come before people.

I believe investing in renewables is the way forward. We have set the target that by 2030, 80% of our electricity generation in Ireland will come from renewables. At the moment, it is 40% plus; it varies day by day depending on the extent to which the wind blows. That is the future for Ireland. The Deputy mentioned that we get all of our gas from the Corrib. We do not.

Most.

No, not most. We get about 30%. It is important that we are accurate. We get the balance from the UK and Norway. We are not self-sufficient in relation to gas supply in this country. Similarly, in respect of oil.

I did not say we are self-sufficient. I said that the Government has the power to intervene.

The Deputy narrowed this issue down to fuel, which is a major issue, but he ignored the impact that the war is also having on food prices, fertiliser, input costs for farmers and so on. It might suit his ideological agenda to narrow it down to one specific issue. The impact of this is global and it is across a range of sectors that are impacting on the Irish economy. As a Government, we are doing all that we can to respond.