I am aware the Minister has never spent a day on the bog. I hear that from media reports. However, if he understood families who rely on burning turf, it is the cheapest form of fuel at this time. The Minister talks about excess deaths. Every excess death is one too many but let me tell the Minister about excess deaths. Every year, 2,800 people in this State die of fuel poverty.

Where are those figures from?

The Minister wants to ban people from rural communities - people in my community, my neighbour - from being able to purchase a load of turf come September. They do not have any other source of heating. Will the Minister tell me, if he applauds a just transition, where is the justice in that? This is a daft idea and that has been recognised across the political divide. The Minister is out of touch with the realities of people at this time. If the Government wants to ban smoky coal, it should ban coal. There is no opposition to that. Let us be clear, however. Do not ban turf until alternatives are there for the people who rely on it. We know fossil fuels are coming to an end. We know that people going to the bog is coming to an end. It is a practice that will phase out.

When?

The Deputy should come to my parish and ask my neighbours how they are going to heat their homes come September and in winter-----

Time is up, Deputy, please.

-----and how they will get hot water and keep their families safe. That is what the Minister wants to do.

I ask that he clarify in detail what the proposal on the turf ban is at this point in time.

I understand the Deputy's statistics are from some 25 years ago but taking-----

No.

That is not true.

Taking them, there is a correlation. Some of those figures include the very same people I am concerned about. The deaths due to air quality are also connected to poverty. It tends to be the same people, so the two issues go together.

You are playing with lives now.

This is greenwashing.

Does Sinn Féin accept the legal advice we have received-----

Please answer the question on turf. Does the Government know what it is planning on turf?

Does Sinn Féin accept the legal advice-----

What is happening in September?

-----and, if not, what is its solution to the problem?

What are you planning to do?

One thing I would love to do-----

Do you know what you are planning to do?

What I am planning to do-----

You do not know which way you are going.

-----is try to work with Sinn Féin to convince-----

Do you have a plan?

----it in the North to introduce the same regulations-----

Are people going to be banned from buying turf or not?

Deputies, please.

If I can finish the point-----

If the Minister does not know, he should just say so.

Sit down. You do not have a clue what your own policy is.

Please do not shout down the Minister.

I have to be able to speak.

You need to try it in your grandfather's village near Cahir.

I am sorry, Minister.

This is an embarrassment to the House.

Can we have a little silence and show a little respect for each other? Let us hear the Minister out.

He does not know what he is talking about.

One of the things we need is an all-Ireland approach. One of the problems we have with coal is it is coming across the Border. There are no regulations of the type we are looking at here in the North. The Sinn Féin manifesto for the Assembly elections in the next few weeks says nothing about air quality. It is as if is not an issue.

The House wants to know what the Minister's plan is on turf, with respect.

Sinn Féin is the party that talked in the last election about change.

The Minister's time is up.

That is ridiculous. Sit down.

Deputy, please.

Why is it any time we talk about environmental change Sinn Féin says no?

What is the plan?

If you do not know the answer, just sit down.

Why is the change to treat these public health issues is the critical problem?

What is your plan? Do you have a plan?

My plan is to work on an all-Ireland basis and to stop having this North-South disconnect-----

Are you banning turf or not?

Let us have a unity referendum.

-----so the pollution from smoky fuels coming across the Border stops being something that kills people on both sides of the Border.

Minister, please. This sort of the behaviour is unseemly. Can we please conduct ourselves with a little bit of order? I call Deputy Bacik.