Táim ag bogadh ar aghaidh go ceannaire nua Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre. I am moving on to the new leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Bacik. I congratulate her and we will give her a few extra seconds.

I will take up that offer. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I appreciate that. I also welcome the Taoiseach back. Fáilte ar ais. I pay tribute to my colleague and the outgoing leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Kelly, for his immense work, commitment and contribution to the party, to the House and to public debate over many years.

My solidarity and that of the Labour Party is with the people of Ukraine, who for the past month have been enduring the horrific war crimes and the brutal Russian invasion and bombardment. I have just come from the funeral of Pierre Zakrzewski. I was honoured to receive an invitation to attend from Michelle and his family. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, was also there. I pay tribute to the immense bravery of Mr. Zakrzewski and that of his colleagues, war reporters and journalists, who have brought us news of the atrocities and shone a spotlight on the war crimes being committed daily in Ukraine by Russia and Putin's brutal regime.

There is a moral and political imperative on us to do more to support the people of Ukraine through all the peaceful and humanitarian means at our disposal.

We have supported Ukraine's application for accession to the EU, which is very welcome, and we have moved with a number of EU states on that. We have opened our doors to refugees fleeing Ukraine and I pay tribute to the many people across Ireland welcoming refugees and doing so much to support refugees coming here.

I call again for the expulsion of the Russian ambassador from Ireland. If EU member states do not act in concert in such action, as would be ideal, we should move to do it unilaterally. The time has come when we see the horrors of Mariupol and the horrors being rained down on the people of Ukraine. It is now incumbent on us to do this.

Remaining conscious of the carnage and loss of life in Ukraine, I believe the Government should be doing more to support people through the fallout of the war in Ukraine, which has compounded the three crises facing people across the country today. There is a crisis in the cost of living, with rising inflation; a crisis in fuel and energy security and supply; and, of course, the existential climate emergency or crisis. The effects of the terrible war in Ukraine are, among other things, posing a threat to the limited but nonetheless welcome gains we saw at an international level in reducing emissions at COP26 and our own welcome ambitious targets in the climate action Act.

We know European countries are seeking ways to reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas and I have called for Ireland at an EU level to do more to push for a full embargo on Russian oil and gas. In order to do that, we must ensure we do not look to other fossil fuels in that period as that is not the approach we should be taking. For example, there are reports that nine liquefied natural gas terminals are due to be constructed on this island, with eight in this jurisdiction, over the coming years, and that is concerning. It would be concerning to see us locking ourselves into that when instead we should be looking at ramping up our renewables and our capacity in renewables. We are seeing concerns being expressed by Wind Energy Ireland and others about how we can achieve those targets.

What is the Government doing on a process to expel the Russian ambassador? What is the Government doing to ensure we can have energy security without further reliance on fossil fuels?

I congratulate the Deputy on her election as leader of the Labour Party. I wish her every success.

Really? Does the Taoiseach wish me every success?

I express the very best wishes from us. I pay tribute to the Deputy's predecessor as leader, Deputy Alan Kelly. Notwithstanding the odd spat, we enjoyed a good relationship. His heart was always in the public interest and of that there can be no doubt. I appreciated his constructive leadership in the teeth of the Covid-19 crisis.

I concur with much of what the Deputy has said in respect of the Ukrainian crisis. I express my sympathies to Pierre's family. I was invited to the service but was at Cabinet so my aide-de-camp and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, represented the Cabinet. His death illustrates the vital importance of modern media and the bravery and courage of journalists in battle zones. They shine a light on atrocities and the barbaric attacks on civilisation, including citizens and households, the indiscriminate bombings of towns and people and the horrendous human trauma visited on the women, children and men of Ukraine. We do not often reflect on the degree to which members of the media put their lives literally on the line to bring the truth to us. We see in authoritarian regimes, and in Russia itself, what happens with the suppression of anybody who voices dissent: it is savage, it is severe, it is imprisonment. It is important we remind ourselves of the importance in our society of the tenets of democracy, including separation of powers, including on the judicial side, the freedom of media and the necessary tension between all the different pillars.

On sanctions, we sought to act in unison all along with our fellow European member states in the belief that this has the greatest impact. To date, the economic sanctions have been severe and unprecedented. The fact they happened with the United States, the European Union and others was powerful. Last week we saw very strong unity from the United States and Europe together, along with Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom, saying we are democracies and we stand with the people of Ukraine. That is impactful.

On the diplomatic side we have also sought to work with others and will continue to do so.

We will keep all of those issues under review in respect of diplomatic sanctions or initiatives to illustrate the country's dissatisfaction, to put it mildly, or outrage at the war. I refer also to other activities that are under way in the name of diplomacy but may not necessarily be bona fide diplomacy.

On climate change, perhaps the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will also give me a few extra seconds.

Deputy Bacik is the new Labour Party leader.

I wanted to respond to questions she raised. I can take them up in the next round.

I thank the Taoiseach for his kind words. I also appreciate his comments about the importance of war reporting. I absolutely agree with him that this is an attack on democracy. It is a brutal and unprovoked attack on a peaceful sovereign state. We have to be absolutely clear in our condemnation of Russian action and our solidarity with Ukraine. It is in that spirit that I offer constructively my view that we should be doing more as a neutral country through non-military means to express that condemnation. Just as we have seen Ireland moving along with other nations to support Ukraine's application for accession to the EU, so too should we be moving with like-minded nations, even if we do not have full agreement across the EU, on more stringent diplomatic measures such as expulsions of diplomats. I think that is one way, along with the other things we are doing, that we as a neutral State can show our outright condemnation.

On the issue of climate, I ask the Taoiseach again about how the construction of new gas-fired plants is compatible with meeting our targets on renewables, particularly as there are already so many concerns about whether we can, in fact, meet those targets with offshore wind development.

We are still 80% reliant on importation of fossil fuels more broadly across the energy portfolio. We are making good progress on the contribution of renewables to electricity where I think we are at 41% or 43%. The point is that gas will be a transitional backup fuel for a long time, behind our renewables effort. The Deputy is correct that this war means we have to double down on renewables. However, alongside and parallel with renewables, we will need gas. We have to be clear about that. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has been working for quite some time on an energy security review. The war has thrown into sharp focus our dependency on imported fossil fuels but also vulnerabilities across Europe in terms of security of supply. That is why Europe is moving strongly on liquefied natural gas now to stop its dependency on Russian gas and oil. The German Government is making it very clear that it is going to reduce its dependency and it is very highly dependent. We are going to have to watch the energy security side of the equation as well. We are focused particularly on next winter.