Danny Healy-Rae
Kerry · Independent · Ireland
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about post offices. First of all, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, and the Government for giving them financial assistance this year because they do need it. Like every other Member, I appreciate our post office network.”
“People should not be sent elsewhere to bigger towns because there are no longer banks in villages and it is very important for people to meet. Social interaction is so important with people. People are becoming very lonely in rural places because they do not meet as much as they used to at the creamery, the shop or the pub.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill and giving us the chance to discuss the possibility of a united Ireland. Since I was a young fella, all I ever heard was that was what we needed and that we could not stop until it was achieved. There is so much involved in this.”
“We hope that we will retain the post offices because as has been said here, the post office, the school and the GAA club are so vital for retaining the identity of parishes throughout the length and breadth of rural Ireland. We hope we will retain the post offices in Kilgarvan, Kenmare and Glenflesk.”
“We want that for the people of the North of Ireland as well but we must have the conversation as to what will be the story for all the different things. We must be united in this Chamber and the people of the Twenty-Six Counties must, by and large, be in favour of reunification. We need to hear their views.”
“We must be united here in this Chamber for a start, each and every one of us. We cannot be throwing Scud missiles across the Chamber at each other. We need to have a united front. This is a serious business. We need to know where this will lead us.”
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“Columbanus home at the minute for the great care and attention that they have given to patients in both places back over the years, including all the different members of staff who served there and did so well. I thank each and every one of them. However, I am looking forward because, like I said to the Minister of State, there is deep frustration in the area as to what is wrong and why it is not open. It has been added to by the story from the HSE that there is an embargo in hiring staff in the south west for the rest of this year. It is true that it has come out and said that. I hope that it will not hurt us in Killarney in any way because we have waited long enough. We have waited for the minor injuries clinic. We have been asking for it for over ten years, as well as the primary care clinic and the respite that so many carers deserve.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have worries and questions about how this will be opened on a phased basis. Is the Minister of State saying to me that 101 beds will open at the start? When will the other 29 beds open? I can see right away that there will be a requirement for new staff if we are moving the staff out of the St. Columbanus home and then out of the district hospital. I do not know where the differences in the statements from the INMO and the senior official in the HSE came from but the Minister of State seems to be adamant that they have been talking. It would be remiss of me if I did not mention this tonight but I want to thank the staff in the district hospital and who are in the St.”
“That is to be in St. Columbanus home, the respite is to be in the district hospital, and we do not yet know where the primary care clinic is going to be. They are all contingent on each other. Does the Minister of State know when the hospital will open? Does he know if there is engagement between the nurses' union and the HSE? God almighty, the amount of money that the HSE has got in this year's budget alone. The worry is that it has come out in recent days to say there is an embargo on hiring staff in the south west. We are in the south west and I hope this is not going to hit or hurt our hospital opening. As I said to the Minister of State, there is ambivalence about who meets whom, but they certainly need to meet each other and we need to get the hospital open.”
“The INMO said recently that the HSE has not engaged with it regarding the staffing issues. In recent days, a senior HSE official said the HSE is engaging with the INMO every week. Someone is right and someone is wrong, or maybe both are wrong, or maybe both are right, but at the same time, the hospital has not been opened. So much is contingent on this hospital opening. The present district hospital in Killarney and St. Columbanus home are practically together. The long-stay patients in St. Columbanus home are to be moved to the new hospital to make way for a primary care clinic. The old district hospital is to make way for respite for elderly people and, as I understand it, elderly people in care are entitled to four weeks of respite. Many people did not get that in our area last year. We also have a minor injuries clinic.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to raise with the Minister of State the proposed opening of the new Killarney community nursing home, which has been completed for over 12 months. There is a lot of frustration in the region, the town and all around it with the delay in opening it. As I said, it has been completed for over 12 months. The lights were on there every night through the winter. The heating has been on and everything, and people are wondering. Councillor Maura Healy-Rae brought a motion to the area meeting some days ago and she was supported by her fellow councillors. Each of them has often asked why there is a delay, what is happening and why it is not opening. There is a conflict in relation to the proposed staffing of the hospital. It will require a lot of extra staffing.”
“As much as anyone else, I welcome the MTU in Tralee for students in Kerry. However, I would say again that it does not make any sense at all if these youngsters could work and earn another bit of money to help themselves to go to college. It would help to take the burden off their parents. The Minister is talking about all the things the Government has given out and that is fine, but these people and their families are still under financial pressures that were never seen before. This is especially the case in families where there is more than one student in the house. I ask the Minister to look at this and to give these lovely young boys and girls a chance to work. They love to work. I always had someone like them in the bar at home and I appreciated them. We can learn things from young people that we might not otherwise learn.”
“I thank the Minister for his reply. What I am saying is that it will cost the State nothing to allow the work students do at weekends to be disregarded for the SUSI grant. The costs are exorbitant now for students going to college and it is only natural that they would want to help their parents out and help to get themselves to college and pay for all the things the Minister listed, including the fees, student accommodation and travel from places as far away as Cahersiveen and Dingle and all the places in Kerry that they have to travel from to colleges right around the country. What benefit is it to the State to stop youngsters from going to work for the weekend? It is hurting businesses that may have built up a relationship with these youngsters during the holidays. I see no point whatsoever in it.”
“It is very unfair that only income from work during holidays is considered for students who wish to avail of the SUSI grant. If they have a small weekend job they lose out, as there is no disregard for that. What is the reason for this? If they have a bit of work for weekends, why not allow it to be disregarded, like the holiday pay? Youngsters appreciate work.”
“I call on the Minister of State, the Taoiseach and the senior Minister for energy to bring these electric companies before the relevant Oireachtas committee, whether that is the committee on energy, the committee on finance or some other committee. The ordinary people on the ground whom we represent are the people we are answerable to. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, spoke about the amount that is being put into retrofitting but there are many people who are not benefiting at all. You need a lot of money to meet the qualifying conditions for the grant. On the warmer homes scheme, I was talking to someone last week and many people are being excluded because they do not qualify. They are not told for a year and half although they are waiting for it. That is not on at all. That should be rectified.”
“They can provide turf for themselves. That is legal. I hope that will never change. The worst thing that is going on with the energy companies now is that there are so many of them and they are making fortunes on the backs of poor people. Even working-class people and small businesses are suffering. I cannot understand what is going on. Some companies are putting up their prices by a given percentage while others are putting them up by even more. One company has even brought its prices down. It seems there is no regulation whatsoever. The regulator is asleep, not there or not acting for some reason or other. It is not good enough.”
“First, I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very important Bill. As I have said in the Chamber several times, it is a fact that the cost of electricity has gone up every day since we closed down Bord na Móna. Reflecting on it now, that should not have happened but Eamon Ryan and the Greens were in a hurry. It should not have been closed down until we had at least made some preparations or had enough wind power or energy from other sources to replace it, although I fervently believe there was nothing wrong with generating electricity from turf or with cutting turf. I have turf cut and ready to save myself. It is very important to have your own fuel. People were wrongly advised that they should not cut turf. Many people are now afraid to cut it. They think they are breaking the law but they actually are not.”
“I met one of them the other evening who had actually given up. He was a young man of only 45 years of age. He could not stick it any longer. That is the gospel truth. To go back to the nurses, I appreciate them. We adore the ground they walk on and we appreciate them so much for the effort they put in on that roster every time they appear.”
“I had occasion to be in the hospital the other night with a patient at around 3 a.m. The nurses there were working the very same as if it was the middle of the day. They were doing their duty and they knew every patient by name. They had such an understanding of everyone's needs on the ward I was in. It is great to have that when we need it. We must look after them. I had occasion to meet a young girl who is 18 years old and training to be a mental health nurse. She has to go to Mayo from Milltown in Kerry to further her studies. She is determined and she will do it as she wants to be a nurse. I admire her for the determination she is showing. We need these nurses and we need them seen after, and paid and remunerated properly. I feel for the ambulance drivers who have to go out on strike.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to raise my satisfaction and appreciation of all the nurses in Kerry and around the country, especially the nurses with whom I have had the occasion to deal with many times, both in the past and recently. I am especially thinking of staff in University Hospital Kerry but also those in the district hospitals in Killarney, Listowel, Cahersiveen, Dingle, Valencia and Kenmare and the hospitals that Kerry people go to, such as the one over the head in Bantry. Many Kerry people also use the hospitals in Cork, including Cork University Hospital, South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Bon Secours Hospital, the Mater Private Cork Hospital and so forth. The standard of nursing we have in this country is massive. I do not think they have it in any other part of the world.”
“I am asking the Minister of State not to let this happen in any other part of the country. These people have not been paid and their accommodation is up in the air. They need to be talked to. There is a lot of work to sort it out. I am begging the Minister of State to do so and to ensure that we bring back the goodwill of the people whose lands we are going through because it is vital to have their goodwill on our side. The greenway will help everyone. It is making life difficult for the landowners, but they have to be compensated and seen after.”
“When the compulsory purchase order was being mooted first, I thought it was only for those six or seven. I appreciated that all the rest of them were willing to talk and to agree. As a last resort, it should have been only the ones they had trouble with and not all of them. When we see the powers that were given and that people are not paid until the works are completed, it is very wrong. I am asking the Minister of State not to allow this to happen in any other part of the country - our country. I am talking about Kerry. It is vital that the landowners are brought on board where these walkways and cycleways are going through. You will always need their goodwill and to show goodwill to the people who are coming to visit our county. That is important.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply. Before work starts on any man's land or woman's land, it should be paid for first, and not afterwards. It is not right that they may be paid at a later time. The Minister of State is telling me that some of them will be paid this year. What I am saying is do not go into any other man's land without paying first and agreeing the accommodation works. That is my view on it anyway. To go back to when the CPO process was put in place, I was there and involved in the council meetings before Christmas. The officials came back and said they could not agree with six or seven. I begged the manager to send down more help with him, and that I would go myself, if needed, to talk to the landowners and see how those six or seven could be brought around.”
“I cannot understand why a greenway or piece of land that is to be used as an amenity is not paid for in the same way. Surely a contract should have been drawn up detailing what the land take would be and the accommodation works needed, that the farmer would be paid before any work started, with evidence provided of insurance to cover the farmer, the workers, any visitors and everyone involved.”
“People are entitled to and can have a different value on different properties, for example, a site for a child, for themselves, or for whatever other use they have which might place a significant value on the land over what the people dealing with them might think. Greenways sometimes finish up close to dwellings or outbuildings. This is the case in this instance and many families feel that their privacy is compromised. They feel very exposed to the public view. There is no doubt that local businesses in Glenbeigh, Rossbeigh and all of the other business down to and including Cahersiveen badly need the perk and the boost to the economy that this very scenic greenway will bring. I had to pay for any property I ever purchased before I entered it or began working it.”
“The idea that someone can come on to someone's land and take as much as they want or need without any clarity for the owners to build a road or a cycleway that will be finished and opened to the public, but the owners are not yet paid, is very hurtful to many people, and indeed it is hurtful to me. Where accommodation works are needed, they have to be agreed with the owners. If a road is put through a field and that field was always open for cattle, sheep, silage, hay or whatever, to get from one side to cross the greenway as easy as you can for cattle and for tractors or whatever, accommodation works are needed and have to be provided. For greenways going forward, CPO is not the way to go because we need to have the goodwill of the people.”
“This has been an ongoing for a long time. Back in 2014 when the compulsory purchase order, CPO, was being mooted and talked about, the management in Kerry County Council at the time were insisting on the CPO process to all the members of the council. Both myself and Councillor Johnny Healy-Rae were totally and absolutely against the CPO process because it encapsulates and gives fierce powers. I have always believed in ownership. If somebody owns land or owns a house, I believe it is theirs and that to deal with them, we have to buy it or make a deal in some way or other.”
“-----where it will cost a lot more to mind them. I ask the Minister of State to deal with that as a matter of urgency. There was no package given in respect of the increase in the cost of the green diesel used in machinery that is involved in construction, and that will not carry on either. The number of houses that will be built will be reduced because when the price goes up from 98 cent to €1.78, people cannot afford it. They will not be able to keep going. I ask the Minister of State to deal with the last couple of things I said as a matter of urgency.”
“-----are telling me that they cannot continue. It can go in one ear and out the other, but I ask the Minister of State to listen because we will not have these people. It is elderly individuals who want to stay in their homes for as long as possible who will suffer. They will finish up in hospitals and nursing homes-----”
“If employers cannot operate, they cannot hire employees or look after them properly. We have to look after people properly because if we do not, we will not have them. Good workers are very scarce. I need to mention the oil crisis. Home helps and carers-----”
“As we are talking here tonight, we are saying that workers must be looked after. They are the kernel of the issue. They have to be looked after and paid properly. An employer will not have workers if he or she does not look after them properly. The Government has to do something about the tax situation because the cost of living has gone up in every sphere. The regulations will have to be looked at. When seeking to get connected to services, including those relating to water and electricity, people can be told that it could be any number of months. There is an exorbitant cost for those connections. It is taking so long for would-be employers to get going. All those things need to be addressed, as do the cost of public liability insurance and the weight that is placed upon employers' shoulders.”
“What is happening in relation to the situation with oil is still hurting people. Little was done for workers by way of helping with their tax in this year's budget. That needs to be dealt with, sooner rather than later. It is so hard now to get trained workers like good machine operators, lorry drivers, bus drivers or whatever. There are so many rules and regulations. We read in last weekend's newspapers that Ireland has the fewest entrepreneurs in Europe. We need to look at that and see how it can be changed. People are saying that this is caused by the fact that it takes so long to get planning and deal with the regulation and everything that goes with it, insurance, and so on. It takes too long to get things off the ground. That places a burden upon employers' shoulders.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about a very important subject. I recognise the great work employees do in carrying out their duties in so many businesses that I know. When we talk about employees, we have to talk about employers as well because they are in it together. If an employer cannot carry on, he or she will not have the employees. I know this from working in the private sector for many years. My son is carrying on the business now. We have workers who have stayed with us for almost 40 years. We depend on them. If we do not treat them right and if they are not paid right or looked after, they will not stay with us. It is the same across the board. I recognise that many employees feel like maybe they cannot make ends meet. The cost of everything has gone up.”
“They are being denied that day in, day out for year after year. It is very sad. The other thing that is very important in rural Kerry and in our small villages and towns is the LEADER programme. As we approach the new CAP, having already been told that there will be a 28% reduction in the CAP, I worry that LEADER funding will get squeezed, as well as the farmers who are trying to survive. I know the Minister is attentive, and I appreciate that, but we need to address these urgent issues for the people who are trying to survive. There was one thing in the package that did not include people with diggers, cranes and any kind of machinery involved in construction. They got nothing toward the exorbitant cost of the green diesel.”
“Like many others, I resent the comments by the former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, more or less saying that rural Ireland is a burden to the State. That was dreadful. Each and every one of us needs to demonstrate to the people of rural Ireland that we appreciate them here in Dáil Éireann. In Kerry we have a unique situation whereby there are 575 roads on the waiting list for the local improvement scheme, LIS. They are not private roads. They are public roads that were never taken in charge by the county council. There could be ten to 20 houses on each of these roads. We only got €1.2 million again this year. I raise the issue of planning in Kerry for people to build a one-off house for themselves. These people want nothing else but planning. They will do the rest of it themselves.”
“The agricultural community is totally and absolutely against Mercosur. It has been referred to the European court. What legal aid do we have or who is representing us at that court? Do we have representation there? We surely should have representation to put forward our case and that of farmers the length and breadth of the country.”
“In October I certainly could not vote to allow the Government to extend reducing the carbon tax to 2030. It does not make any sense. The Government states that the carbon tax goes towards retrofitting but many people are refused the retrofit grant.”
“To tell them to go cycling or walking is absolutely ridiculous. The last thing I will mention is the carbon tax, which I never voted for in this Chamber and never will. A great case was made at an IFA meeting last week by a sound farmer. He questioned why they should be paying carbon tax when they are sequestering carbon. They have hedges and ditches and when they are growing grass, carbon is being sequestered. That is the God’s gospel truth. Every farmer is complying and putting AdBlue into his tractor, jeep or whatever vehicle it is but he or she is still made to pay carbon tax. Those are the points the Government needs to address. It is not fair, especially on farmers because they sequester more carbon than they generate. I ask the Government to look at that.”
“He gave us a small bit of money and we were allowed to clear the river. The road has not flooded since. Those are the facts, whether the Minister of State likes them or wants to hear them or not. We are losing a lot of lives on roads. People are very hurt over that. A lot of pedestrians are being killed along local roads because the hedges are not cut. People are not allowed to cut them in the summer when the hedges have gone mad. Pedestrians are walking outside the yellow line because they are afraid their eyes would be picked out along the ditch, and then they get hit by motorcars or whatever. During the last protest, the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, told us that we must walk and cycle more. That is hurtful to people who have a time limit to get to work. People have to drop off children to school and do 100 different other things.”
“What is going on is costing us an awful lot of money. The road in Fossa, a national primary road going back to Killorglin and around the Ring of Kerry, was narrowed and there are now footpaths and a cycleway on both sides beside the carriageway. Buses and lorries have to pass each other going east and west. Our rivers are not being cleaned. We are waiting for assessments, reports and this and that. The Flesk river flooded in 2022, which affected the national primary road to Cork outside of Glenflesk. I went through it in late 2015 or early 2016 and I thought I would not get home that night because I did not know where the road finished. The water was 3 ft over the road and there is a 10 ft drop at the side. After several requests and deputations by me and many others, the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, cleared the river.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to speak here today. I believe the climate change, but I do not agree with others about what is causing the change. Climate has changed dramatically over the centuries and decades. In the 1740s, Ireland went through a desperate famine and we lost a third of our population due to hunger, cold and rain. People could not save turf, had no hay for their cows and cattle starved over the winter. The country was burned out of it for 100 years in the 13th or 14th century. In the 1890s, there were floods in places like Gneeveguilla, where a bog was washed into the Lakes of Killarney 12 miles away. In a field in the Clydagh Valley, 11 men were washed down the river by a flood that affected the lads in Ballynavenooragh, Fenit west or something. I do not agree we on this earth can change the weather in any way.”
“Another problem arises that the Department says it has X number of SNAs places and that the country is covered. In many cases, they are not there. Long distances between schools and families create a huge problem for people. Many children with complex needs are still without SNAs and necessary school places. Parents all over the country are worn out from fighting for a school place for their children. They should not have to fight for the one basic right of education. It was very hurtful when the Department tried to take four SNA teachers out of Fossa National School in County Kerry. I am glad that the Department saw the light because these people are doing tremendous work. They should be allowed to continue. Some Department official went into that school, sat aside in another room and drew up the idea of taking away four SNAs.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. It is the biggest wonder of the world when a baby is born to a loving couple. They look forward to raising the baby, bringing them up and giving that child the very best. Equally, it is devastating when they discover that something is the matter and that the child needs an assessment or whatever, and they have to wait so long. That is very hurtful for them because they have to fight for everything. They have to fight for primary school education and special needs teachers. When they move on to post-primary school, they have to do it again. Surely, the powers that be and the education system should recognise at that stage that they need SNAs and more of the same in secondary school.”
“Many people got packages over the past week or so. People with machines involved in the construction industry and the provision of services, whether pipelaying for water, electricity or telecommunications, use a lot of green diesel. To my understanding, they have not been included in any package. The cost of building and construction is going up every day but this has been exacerbated a lot further. I ask the Taoiseach to consider looking after those involved in services provision and the construction industry because rollers, diggers, cranes and every kind of machine is run on green diesel. That has gone up by over 80 cent and has only gone down, as far as I can see, by only 5 cents. A lot more needs to be done.”
“Will the Government give the people down the country the feeling that the Dáil appreciates them, that they are wanted and needed and that they will be looked after properly because that has not been happening?”
“In the package being given out, there is no mention of the cost of the diesel or doing anything about the diesel for construction machines that are involved in the building of houses, such as the high rise cranes, the diggers digging the foundations or putting in the services underground, whether they are mini-diggers or larger diggers. There is something, though not enough, for farmers and agricultural contractors but there is nothing at all for civil contractors. I am asking the Government not to ignore me and not to forget it because there is much consternation that it has not been addressed. I feel the reason it has not been addressed is that the Government kept a lot of people out of the talks who had things to say. There were plenty of rooms around Dáil Éireann for the Government to talk to them in and it just did not want to.”
“I stood here on 24 March when the Taoiseach and Government announced just 3 cent of a reduction in the cost of green diesel and 2 cent on kerosene. I begged the Government from where I am standing now to listen to me and to come in and address it the following week. I said if it had forgotten or did not understand, I was pleading with it to rectify it. It was allowed to carry on and it went from bad to worse when a Minister gave €40 million again to Ukraine in the middle of it. It was like throwing gallons of petrol on the fire because people are feeling the pinch like never before. There is a package and the Minister of State can listen to me or not but there will be another occasion like today and maybe more than that.”
“They are right to do so. A lot of money is being wasted. We went down for €1.9 billion of a loan for the Ukrainians to keep the war going. That was on top of the €125 million that was given to President Zelenskyy. People say to me that RTÉ, when it was in trouble, got €725 million from the Government.”
“They are hard-living and hard-working people, including nurses and carers. It was a cross-section of the community. It was coming from every angle. That is the God's gospel truth. People are still very hurt. What I said that day was that however much more oil was costing, I knew it would have to be paid but the Government would have to forgo the extra taxes at the pump where people were paying for it. I said the Government should reduce it and not make work for itself with applications. The people were going to be in trouble filling out application forms, as they are with every other application. Many people are denied after going to the trouble of applying and the Government is giving them false hope. I said to the Government to give that money back at the pumps. People complain about all the money that is wasted.”
“I am glad of the opportunity. It has been an awful time for the people of Ireland and it is not getting much better. Indeed, it has been an awful time for elected politicians, their families and workers. We were pegged around the place by friends and people of whom we thought a lot and people who thought a lot of us. We have been working for them for many years. I think it was what happened here on 24 March that kicked it off. There was a reduction of only 3 cent to help people with the cost of green diesel, which had gone up by 80 cent. There was only a reduction of 2 cent on kerosene, which had gone up by 80 cent, too. To throw petrol on the fire, some time around April Fool's Day, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, went to Ukraine and gave it €40 million. People started to go mad and they are mad.”
“I appeal to the Government to work to do something about the price of green diesel and to lower the price of heating oil. It has to be done, one way or another.”
“On another small thing they do, which is not a small thing really, last Sunday, about 50 tractors landed into the sports field in Barraduff to fundraise for the cancer link bus from Kerry to Cork. They do all that kind of fundraising out of their own pockets. We would not have the cancer link bus if it were not for those fundraising efforts, which mean so much to people who get sick in Kerry. The Government should think of that in its deliberations. That is happening Sunday after Sunday, week in, week out. The Government should think of what that means in real terms to real people who are sick. My main focus when coming up here last week was to look for help for hauliers and tractor men. That is the greatest demand I have today. I will be back again next week, asking the same things.”
“Did this happen to the Minister of State on his journey here? That is what I have seen. That is very unfair if what I think has happened is happening. I appeal to the Minister of State. We are trying to work together here for the benefit of the country but a whole lot of people are very dissatisfied with what came out of here last night. I ask the Minister of State to address it next week and as soon as possible. If the Government cannot refund or take money off it, it must give them a direct subsidy towards it whereby when they show you a receipt, they will get so much back. I appeal to and urge the Government to do that, on behalf of the farmers and the tractor men all over the country.”
“Not everyone is getting the fuel allowance as many people who should get it are not getting it for one reason or another. The home heating oil is all they have. As I have said to the Minister of State previously, the cost of electricity has gone up day by day since the day Bord na Móna was scrapped. We have no control in the world; we have no regulator. There are different ESB companies that are charging different amounts and putting it up by so many percent, and others are bringing it down. There is no law and order with these ESB providers and the regulator must be brought to task. I do not know whether it was by design or whatever but on what I will call the day before last night, all the pumps jumped to €2.28. It is not only one or two here and there, but it is every pump along the road that went to €2.28 and I am worried about that.”
“There is now 70 cent of a difference since they were working away and farmers were under pressure enough to keep going with all the rules and regulations they have at the present time. The price of diesel was dear enough before it went to that and before it finished up at that price. It was only 39 cent per litre back in 2020, which was a short five years ago. They are worried now that this will be the same, where they could finish up at €1.40 or €1.50, and it will not work that way. I am not fighting. I have no gripe in the world, personal or otherwise, with the Minister of State but I am explaining it to him here and to tell the Government clearly that this cannot continue without being addressed. The cut of 3 cent was a proper insult, as well as the 2 cent cut to the home heating oil.”
“Many young fellows are now asking why should they be working the weekend when all the fellows they went to college with - because all these farmers' sons and daughters went to college - and all their friends are not working the weekends. When they see something like this happening with fellows going around with their caps in their hands and who do not know what they are going to do, how they are going to continue or pay the oil man, people will stop up. I ask the Government not to let this go farther than next week and to do something positive together to help these people. Some people are saying that because there was no excise on green diesel, they will not get it back. We must give them a subsidy; there is a way around it.”