All of us send our thoughts to the families of the children whose spinal surgery was investigated by HIQA in the report. The Taoiseach has just articulated how appalling the findings are in respect of those children. It is deeply concerning to see them. The chair of the board of CHI has resigned so things are moving very swiftly. I ask for a proper debate on this in the House this week because it is such a serious matter. I express our thoughts with our colleague, Deputy Boyd Barrett, and wish him well in his treatment for cancer over the coming months. Richard spoke very movingly and bravely about his diagnosis and treatment.

Already, less than a week after the Rose Garden announcement, we are seeing the potentially catastrophic effect of Trump's tariffs. These so-called reciprocal tariffs, apparently drawn up on the back of a napkin, have already created massive global uncertainty and are putting entire national economies at risk across the world. The full impact will not become clear for some time. At global level, the tit for tat has started with China and the EU will later today announce a response to the 25% steel tariffs. It is welcome to hear that whiskey, wine and dairy products will be left out to protect EU, and indeed our own, alcohol and food exports from further reprisals but the likelihood is that once the EU package is announced, Trump will hit back with more tariffs.

What is becoming clear is that this is not just about tariffs or customs barriers. Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro made clear in the Financial Times yesterday that they are aiming for what they call non-tariff weapons, including EU regulations and taxes like VAT, data localisation rules and what they call "lawfare" that they allege targets US tech companies. Navarro singled out EU rules on hormone-treated meat from the US and genetically modified crops.

Can the Taoiseach offer any assurance to Irish businesses, farmers, workers and consumers in light of this imminent and ongoing threat? We know the Tánaiste will fly today to meet with Trump’s Secretary of Commerce and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is already in the US. I thank the Taoiseach for offering a briefing with Opposition leaders later this week where I hope we will hear more about the Government's negotiating brief and how to avert the worst impact of the tariffs. There are, however, urgent questions today. Workers are facing the dreaded prospect of job losses. We are hearing already from employers, particularly in medtech and other export sectors, that contracts are being paused or cancelled due to uncertainty and that what employers and workers need is a short-term, State-backed work support scheme. Both the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and IBEC have called for such a scheme to be put in place. ICTU has also called for sectoral industry task forces to help manage the disruption. We are talking about a targeted programme, not the broad wage subsidy scheme we had during the pandemic but, rather, a more targeted scheme to address the real impact of tariffs potentially in particular sectors. Germany has a gold standard in the Kurzarbeit scheme.

The Labour Party has been calling for such a scheme to be introduced for some time. Is the Taoiseach ruling out such a scheme or will he consider it? What reassurances can he offer those who are facing that dread prospect of potential job losses or layoffs?

First, I want to join with the Deputy in expressing our very best wishes to Deputy Boyd Barrett as he goes through treatment. We have had many a good joust in the House-----

Likewise.

----- as has the Deputy, as she says - and his voice will be missed over the next couple of weeks. We wish him the very best in the treatment he is about to go through and we wish him a full recovery.

There is some distance to travel here yet on the issue of tariffs and trade wars. It is very serious and grave. The initial focus has to be on whether we can get this onto a negotiation pathway. The Deputy correctly said that issues have been raised around non-tariff barriers. The US has a list of what it perceives to be non-tariff barriers in relation to the entry of US goods - chlorinated chicken or whatever - into the European Union. Likewise, the European Union has a list of similar non-tariff barriers that impact on EU goods getting into the US. In some respects, in raising that issue there may be an opportunity in it. Europe is clear that it is willing to negotiate both the tariff issue but also non-tariff issues in respect of complaints that both sides have about the other. The European response has been a measured one designed to endeavour to get negotiations under way. Before we consider any interventions, or whatever, we must give that opportunity to negotiate in the first instance.

The European response in respect of the steel and aluminium tariffs that were imposed by the US has now been published. The earlier list is one that had been there, to be fair, in an earlier era when the older tariffs had been levied. They then had been lifted by both the Biden Administration and the EU. They were automatically published again and lifted. Now there is a new set. It takes out bourbon which is some positive news for spirits and wine and also dairy products. Of course they are still subject to tariffs and we want to get to a position where we can get zero-to-zero tariff arrangements between the European Union and the US and likewise, if we can get a negotiation pathway on non-tariff barriers and any other issues that may be out there and are out there. That is our approach so far. I spent the last week talking to multinational companies, including medtech companies, on how they see it. They broadly endorse the approach. They do not want escalation. Many of them will be impacted by this in the medium to longer term. There is no doubt that investment decisions are being paused but people are not as yet being laid off, or anything like that, in pharma or medtech.

It is clear that the big hope is that there will be a negotiation pathway open. It is interesting to see the EU already saying it had previously offered to remove all tariff barriers on industrial goods and to buy more LNG from the US, but those offers were met by what was really a non-response from the US. There is a question about the extent to which there will be a response from the US. Clearly, Trump is looking for major concessions but even with those concessions it is not clear that there will be any move. Therefore, it is important for those here who are desperately worried about the potential impact down the line on their jobs, livelihoods, businesses and farms that there is some indication that the Government is now considering the measures being put in place to offer supports. We have seen other schemes in other European countries that can be adapted for particular sectors that are at risk. On Friday, however, the Taoiseach refused to endorse a short-term work scheme. The Minister for Finance spoke in similarly negative terms on Sunday. I think the Tánaiste was a little more open to the prospect of such a scheme more recently. We need to hear from the Government that it is at least considering the prospect of that sort of scheme to support people staying in their jobs and to help to keep businesses afloat.

Whatever we do has to be financially sustainable over the long term. It is just far too early to be venturing anything on that front just yet. This is not the same as Covid-19, as the Deputy has acknowledged. Therefore, our response has to be one that is sustainable, but also we must have some sense of where this is going to settle, if indeed it settles at all. I believe it will in time and we will be in a better position to evaluate what the optimal response will be. If it does not settle and this tariff war continues, that will have implications on everything, including the public finances. We have to be careful in terms of how we proceed so that anything we do is financially and economically sustainable into the future. We need resources to diversify markets. We need resources to invest more in innovation and research. There are things we can do. Investing in infrastructure, for example, is key, and so on.