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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“I ask the Government to get together to come up with some formula for next week. It is more important than anything else to ensure this important sector of our community. There are many industrialists coming and going, and we wish them all the best, but every farmer tends to stay where he is. None of them is going to emigrate and they are not thinking of doing anything else. If they start their farm and get stuck in, they generally finish up. They were proud to get the places they inherited from their parents or grandparents or whatever but they want to hand it back in the same fashion or better than they got it. They want to hand it down to their sons and daughters but they are having trouble with that because of generational renewal problems at present.”
“We were able to do it for the Ukrainians and for many other things but we have to do this for our own farmers who are producing food. Some of them are small farms and some of them are big enterprises, but they are all paying a massive sum now for diesel. It was 98 cent per litre before the bombs and now it is €1.68. There is no change in that. One fellow told me he had ten tractors and he is a contractor. When he fills them in the morning, it cost €6,500 for one day. That is the extent and amount as they are tractors to do big work. The Minister of State will know, as Clare is no different to Kerry, that since Christmas and before it, no farmer could go outside the gap to spread slurry or to do anything. Most of it is there to be done now, and many fellows are wondering whether they will bother planting the grain now.”
“Of course, we welcome whatever we are getting but the talk on the phone today, and every Deputy's phone is busy, but mine is exceptionally busy today because of the number of people with tractors who are up in arms and who are saying they are going to do this and that and that they will have to be heard. Three cent, when the price of diesel has been increased by 70 cent, is not sufficient and is not good enough. The people with kerosene or home heating oil are also very hurt by this. Two cent a litre for them is not enough either. I spoke twice last night but I am here tonight to ask Government to go back and if there is no way to give a reduction, it must give a subsidy. The Government must do something for these people.”
“I am glad to have the opportunity to speak again on this very important and emotive subject. While I thank the Government for the positive elements with the increases and the help it is giving to some of the haulage industry, a great portion of hauliers will not benefit from the tax rebate because they do not have a haulage licence. Even the live exporter members who were in our committee a while ago will not benefit from the rebate. They will benefit, of course, from the reduction at the pump, and I asked for that here last Wednesday. The people who are paying at the pump should benefit at the pump. We are told the Government is benefiting by almost €40 million extra each week since the price went up. For the next ten weeks, the extent of what is being spent is around €25 million a week.”
“We do not know what they are doing. Certainly, it is not the Ireland that we used to know previously. It is not that I want to know everyone's business or anything like that. That is not the point. There are things happening. I do not think the Garda has the ability now to follow these people up before they do untold damage, carry out robberies, or bring in drugs or whatever. We do not know what these people are doing. There needs to be more command over people from different countries who come in. We do not know what they are doing or where they came from, or if they have ever been vetted. We do not really know for sure what is happening around us.”
“There is no proper monitoring of what is going on along the bay. There are drugs coming in every day. They are visible in every town, village and community now. They are coming from somewhere and more needs to be done to stop this. What is also happening now is that there are people renting houses around our local areas. Previously, the local garda knew who every one of these people were, wherever they came in from and whoever they were. As soon as they landed, the garda usually visited them to see who they were and what they were at. That is not happening now. I see fellows - not in our locality, where I know a lot of people - in parishes local to me and we do not know who they are. No one seems to know what they are doing. You will not see some of them all day. They are inside in houses. You might not see them for a week.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to speak about An Garda Síochána today. I thank it for its great work in Kerry. It is a massive county and the distances are very great around all the peninsulas and everything. We have to thank it especially for making progress in connection with the murder of Michael Gaine. We welcome this and hope that it continues to bring this to the conclusion desired by many people because Michael Gaine was loved and appreciated first of all by his own family but also by the vast number of friends he had. It upset the whole county when this tragic episode took place around 12 months ago. It was very regretable that Garda stations like in Lauragh and Sneem do not have a Garda presence all the time. This is not helping the elimination of drugs. We know that there are drugs are coming into the small harbours and piers.”
“This Government borrowed almost €1.8 billion to give to Ukraine to keep the war going. That is our record in the last couple of months but we cannot give a greater part of the 70 cent back to the tractor men and the people who use green diesel. That 3 cent is all they can get. That is a ridiculous percentage. I am sorry for being hard here tonight but, when I think of the people out there, I am not that sorry at all because they have to be represented just the same as everyone else. I am afraid they have been left behind for too long. That is the fact of it. That was demonstrated here today. I welcome the good parts, such as what we are getting for the haulage industry, although not for other sectors. I am sad that the farmers have been totally and absolutely neglected by this Government tonight.”
“With all the aggro that is thrown at farmers for the climate and blaming them for this and for that, it is wrong to leave them behind. It was mentioned that the story could get worse and the Government will have to come back to deal with all the other things again. So be it but do not come back here another day without thinking of the farmers, who are so important to the country. They have given so much of their lives. They inherited their places from parents or grandparents and they want to hand them down in the same way as they got it from their fathers and mothers, for their sons and daughters. They will not want to stay at it and when the young people who we are trying to get into the farming sector with generational renewal hear and see this, they will not put up with it at all. The Ministers must beg, borrow or steal.”
“They are not being recognised here at all today. That is being dead honest about it. Because the Government has not got it done today, it must come back in a very short time. It had almost four weeks to put this package together properly. I know it is not the Minister's or the Minister of State's individual job to organise this package but they are the ones in charge. They must get after the officials in the Departments to ensure that the farming community, the people that drive tractors and produce our food are looked after. Food is paramount to stay alive. On top of that, they are one of the major exporters of goods out of this country and they have to be recognised and treated as such. We need to make sure that they want to stay at it.”
“They all run on green diesel and 3 cent will not make enough of a difference to give them the confidence to stay going. Fishermen who are already on their knees, use a lot of green diesel to run their boats. They are affected as well. They will not get it any cheaper from the suppliers. I am very disappointed that people who have to use green diesel have not been properly treated here today. A cut of 3 cent is not enough. I am asking the Government to come back with another proposal. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake or to forget something. We cannot leave these people behind like this because it is not fair. When I went into politics, alongside my father, he always said that you have to be fair with everyone. That is what we will have to do here. We will have to be fair with these people.”
“It has gone up from 98 cent to €1.68 in our neck of the woods anyway. I am sorry that these people have been left behind. They do great things like tractor runs for charities such as the Kerry cancer support group bus that takes many people to Cork. We were out last Sunday and I thank all the young boys and girls that landed in Barraduff with their tractors to support the bus that takes patients to Cork, Dublin and Limerick. Industrial machinery will be affected. There is an awful lot of talk about house building but a lot of people have gone into contracts for builders and they are now wondering will they be able to perform because of the cost of diesel, which is outrageous. Cranes, teleporters, diggers and dumpers are needed.”
“Bakeries that transport their own bread and scones or whatever to the shops will not qualify. So many of these will be left behind and it is not fair on them. On the green diesel, I am sorry to be criticising the Government's reductions but did it totally forget such a thing or does it know what the colour of it is or what it is used for? Tractors are a necessary component of farm production and for many months now, farmers could not go inside their gaps because of bad, incessant rain and weather. There is a whole lot of jobs left behind and still to be done. Many farmers are contemplating not growing the grain at all or ploughing for it because with this they were banking on getting something reasonable. In fairness, 3 cent is not good enough to compensate for the rise of 70 cent over the last two or three weeks.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk again this evening on this. I am sorry if I will be repeating some of the things that Deputy Fitzmaurice raised. It is because we are involved with the same kind of people and we are feeling for some of the people that have not been properly seen after here today. I welcome the good points that have been brought forward in relation to the white diesel and for the reduction and rebate for those who will qualify for it. Many hauliers who are very important people and who do great work will not qualify because they did not ever have to have a haulage licence. One of the components to qualify is to be a haulage licence holder. Many of those people will not qualify because they transport livestock. Drivers of lorries moving timber from forests to sawmills will not qualify.”
“I thank those who operate the "cancer bus" that takes people for treatment, chemotherapy or whatever. That bus is funded on a voluntary basis. If anything deserves to be funded by the State, it is the bus that takes patients for treatment. When people get cancer, they should be entitled to medical cards. Whatever means you have or whatever number of children, you are not able to work and you need a medical card to pay for treatment. Otherwise, you are treated as a second-class citizen. People feel like that. Early diagnosis is of paramount importance, as is early treatment. We need to ensure that happens in every case.”
“Like every other county in Ireland and, I suppose, other places across the world, Kerry has its fair share of cancer patients. Sadly, many people have passed on at a young age as a result of cancer. As a public representative, I come across more than my share of these patients from day to day. Kerry is lacking in many ways because of the distances involved. A person with cancer who lives in Cahersiveen, Dingle, Lauragh or other places nearby is 50 miles or 60 miles from Tralee, in the first instance, and over 100 miles from Cork. Kerry has been promised, in the grounds of University Hospital Kerry, UHK, oncology services. We are still waiting for those. Comfort for Chemo Kerry has done a lot of fundraising for this project, which the HSE has approved. These services would help a lot of people who are currently to CUH for treatment.”
“This war might continue, and no one in here or outside can say it will or will not. I am asking the Government to review the rules it has made on turf cutting and ensure that people who have the facility, have a bog and can cut turf are allowed to cut it, whether it is to sell it or use it themselves. That has to be reviewed because of the cost of electricity. We may not have electricity. I am also hurting because of the fact that there was no bother two or three weeks ago with Ireland supporting a loan of €1.8 billion to keep the war in Ukraine going, yet we cannot find enough money anywhere to help the tractor men who are using green diesel. The day Zelenskyy was here, we also gave him €125 million.”
“Regarding green diesel for the tractor men, as the Ministers know, no tractor has gone inside a gap for the last three months, and now is the time that they are making a start. Because of the weather conditions, they could not do a bit until now, and there is a lot of work waiting. To offer them 2 cent or 3 cent of a reduction is totally unfair. I was brought up to believe that we should treat everyone fairly. Whatever way the Government could have got around that, it should have done something better for the tractor people. I include in that the industrial workers and fishermen. Those with any type of engine that uses green diesel are paying up to €1.68 a litre when it was 98 cent three weeks ago. That is an awful jump of 70 cent a litre. The cost of electricity has gone up day by day since the Government closed Bord na Móna.”
“I too welcome the package of €235 million. I am thankful for the reduction in white diesel for hauliers and the promised rebate that is to come. I also welcome the petrol reduction for all of those who are working hard and need their car to go to work. I deplore the fact that people who need heating oil only get a reduction of 2 cent a litre, which is only €20 for a fill of a 1,000-litre tank. That is very hard. I welcome the extension of the fuel allowance, but many people are not on the fuel allowance. Many hauliers have a haulier’s licence and operate that way, but there are other hauliers who do not have a haulier’s licence and do not have to have it, but who supply their own products. Agricultural lorries transporting cattle will not get the diesel rebate either. I am hurting for those people.”
“Do not charge them any more than they are being charged already. They are being charged enough taxes. I ask the Government to give it back by reducing the cost per litre at the pump and to get home heating oil in the door. I refer to people who are going to work in cars or picking up schoolchildren, or the people with lorries or trucks on the road going hard every day delivering services and whatever. Farmers with tractors using green diesel are being hit doubly because it has gone from €1.12 up to €1.68 or €1.70, as has home heating oil. It is very easy to do it; I ask the Government to give it back at the pumps where it is taking it from. The sooner the Minister does it, the better because people are going under. They cannot stick the pressure.”
“The sooner the Government does what I am asking it to do, the better because people are going under every day with the cost of fuel on the road. Any man or woman with a wheel and an engine is already being kicked very hard at the present time. It is reported that the Government is taking in €40 million a week more in taxes. I am asking it to give that back. The Minister, Deputy Jim O’Callaghan, said today that it would be given back in targeted measures. I am asking the Government to give it back at the pump where the people are paying for it and to reduce the amount charged at the pump by the amount of extra taxes that it is getting in. It will cost the Government nothing but I am asking it, please, not to charge the people on the road and those depending on home heating oil.”
“Like all the rest of the country, the people of Kerry are suffering with the exorbitant cost of diesel, petrol and heating oil. It has come to my attention that, in Northern Ireland, it is 30 cent less per litre. As the Government is taking in almost €40 million extra in taxes a week, I am asking it to reduce the price at the pump by that amount for the people who are using it. I cannot understand when the Minister says the Government will target certain people. Every man and woman with a wheel and an engine is affected by the extra cost now. I am told it takes 1,400 litres to fill a truck. Can the Minister imagine the amount of hardship? If the Government does not act soon, it will be too late.”
“We lost another post office a couple of weeks ago in Cordal. A family gave great service to the area. The man who ran the post office is now a senior citizen. His father retired many years ago and he carried on the business. A tradition and a name has been lost in Cordal with the closure of the post office. We are sad about that because it was a great place for people to meet. Elderly people feel it is their job to collect a pension or whatever else. Likewise, the children's allowance and other benefits should be paid through post offices.”
“Invariably, they are the centre of each locality. If the post office is not there, a place loses its identity. We are in trouble now with so many shops closing in rural areas. In many rural villages, there is nothing left but the post office. We hope we will retain the post offices in Kilgarvan, Kenmare and Glenflesk. We appreciate the great work they do. The Government should advise people to deal with post offices for payments rather than letting them go to banks. We have done enough for the banks. Payments should always be directed to post offices to ensure business is kept in them. People should not be sent elsewhere to bigger towns because there are no longer banks in villages. As everyone else has said, it is up to the people to use their post offices because they will not have them if they do not.”
“Like every other Member, I appreciate our post office network. We are sad to think that so many post offices have closed around us over the years. I remember the previous postmasters in Kilgarvan, Denis P. O'Sullivan and his brother, John O'Sullivan. Before them were Bridie and James Cronin. She used to send her brother out with the telegrams. My uncles told me a story. They met him one day going up the road with a telegram. He asked them if he had much further to go and they asked him where he was going. He told them to mind their own business and to tell him how far he had to go. That was how secretive he was supposed to remain about the telegram. That is a story of happier times. We lost Clonkeen post office, which was very close to me. We lost the post offices in Headford, Blackwater Bridge and different places.”
“We received the local improvement scheme, LIS, allocation of €1.13 million last week. While we welcome the funding, we need a lot more. This funding will just about do for between somewhere between 20 and 25 roads. There are still over 550 roads on the list. We started out with 700 back in 2018. The local authority has signalled that it could deal with 100 or 120 applications each year if it receives the funding. However, these are not private roads. There is a perception out there that maybe they are, but they are not. They are public roads with as many as 20 users on many of them. Those people are entitled to good roads as much as the people in Dublin 4 are. How are we going to deal with this enormous problem?”
“We need to deal with this, whatever the Government comes up with. The Government needs to do this because it is very important. As I said at the start, our children are our future. We need to keep this rubbish away from them until they are at least 16 or 17 years of age. Let them have connectivity with an ordinary phone, or an iPhone if these platforms can be taken off it. We need to leave them have connectivity with their friends and parents in case they need assistance. We need to maintain that, but we have to bring forward a Bill to deal properly with this and we all need to support it.”
“While they may know what is going on at the other end of the world, and there is great value and education to be had from these platforms and these iPhones, I am worried that youngsters are online but do not know what is going on around them. They forget to talk to their parents, their siblings and their grandparents. We all benefited from those things and grew up in a normal way, where everyone belonging to us came first rather than some of these things that happen on the other side of the world. Online abuse is another thing that is terrible. I have not suffered from it but I know that other politicians and people have suffered a lot from this anonymous online abuse where people can put up terrible things about their families and create so much distress. It can trigger suicide and other problems and puts people down in a big way.”
“I believe that youngsters up to 16 years of age should have a mobile phone, maybe something like my own that is of no harm and has no ridiculous content or bad stuff like we know is available at present. We know youngsters are bullied and have been bullied. They have committed suicide as a result. We know this and it is a terrible and awful thing altogether that we have got to know about in recent years. I never understood that such a thing could happen. As Deputy Dolan said, we as parents do not know what is going on in the rooms or behind the doors where children are. We do not know what is going on. More parents need to be educated to understand better. Generally, people out there are outraged with what is happening and the way people are taken over completely by some of these online platforms.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. I thank Deputy Boyd-Barrett for bringing this to our attention. We all agree that online safety for our youngsters is of paramount importance. Our youngsters are our future, and we need to protect our future by protecting our youngsters. This is so important. It is hard for young couples rearing children today to get them to crawl and to walk and all the things before them but this is really hard for many parents to understand. Like Deputy Dolan said, we did not have to go through this. We did not have the problems that are being loaded on our young society. I agree we need to bring in laws to deal with these platforms that are just in it to make money and fortunes for themselves on the backs of our children. Connectivity is so important.”
“I ask the Minister of State to get the local authorities into building houses because they are after giving up and there is no sign of them. It is about time the planning guidelines that we have been waiting for for the past six or seven years appeared. The Minister of State has not yet addressed that issue and I ask him to do something about it.”
“That would tempt people who have vacant houses into renting them to our own people because they are having severe difficulty, as I outlined. It is impossible to get planning along the Dingle peninsula because of the beauty of the place. People need a roof over their heads. There was the cheek of the planning regulator, when councillors in Kerry County Council voted to zone a bit of land for Mick O'Connell on Valentia Island, and he stuck his nose into and dezoned it. That is the kind of thing that has been happening to us. I have been asking the Government day after day to do something about the planning for one-off houses to allow people to build a house for themselves. They are asking for nothing else but to build a house and to ensure they get planning permission.”
“There are many other villages, like Dún Chaoin and Ballyferriter in the greater municipal area, as well as Ventry, Lispole, Annascaul, Camp, Brandon, Cloghan, and Castlegregory. We have no plan to build houses in these little villages to maintain their identity and the culture. Likewise, in the Iveragh Peninsula, we have places like Ballinskelligs, Portmagee and Waterville. We need to build houses in those places. I ask the Minister of State to get the council to build those. There are many vacant houses and people who have vacant houses who are doing nothing at all with them must be given some incentive to do up the houses and rent them out. The Government has a good scheme for the Ukrainians. It pays €600 tax-free. I do not mind that going to them but we should do the same thing for our own Irish people.”
“I want to thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion before us this evening. I welcome the gentlemen from the Gaeltacht here too this evening. I know housing is a serious issue in Dingle. I have people onto me nearly crying trying to source a house to rent. It is a fact that many people are going through this day after day. A lot of houses are taken up by tourists. The tourism sector is very important but I am telling the Minister that if we are serious about maintaining and preserving the Irish language, we need to build more houses in these places, such as in Dingle, so people can stay there. I am asking him to get after Kerry County Council to build social houses in Dingle. If people want, after a time, they can use the tenant purchase scheme to purchase these houses.”
“We live beside Cúil Aodha, which bounds Kilgarvan at the top of Coom. At one time in the 1960s, we were supposed to be included in the Gaeltacht down as far as Morley's Bridge. It never happened and I am sorry about that. I am sorry that I did not give it enough time for the bit of time when I was at school. When I think of the people of Cúil Aodha, I commiserate with the O'Sullivan family. Their sister Nóirín Ó Dálaigh passed away recently. She was a proud Cúil Aodha woman and a Kilgarvan woman as well because their mother came from Kilgarvan. Everyone remembers Diarmuid O'Sullivan on Raidió na Gaeltachta. He was her brother as well. I am surrounded by Irish very close to me. I am very proud of all the people who speak Irish in our county as well.”
“They had a never-say-die attitude and there was no surrender as far as they were concerned. They were nearly gone two, three or four different times and they still came back. As Paul Geaney said in his winning speech, you can say so much more in one line of Irish than you can in English and express things so much better. The Irish language means so much to them in the Gaeltacht and they are so proud of it. It is their everyday language and their winning speeches in Irish were a joy to listen to. We are lucky in Kerry to have these Gaeltacht areas and the great men who play football for their clubs and for Kerry. Indeed, we all remember Páidí Ó Sé and the never-say-die attitude that he had. Our native language is something to be very proud of and we should encourage the use of it at every opportunity.”
“I am sorry that I cannot speak Irish fluently like all of the others here who have done so this evening. I have to tell Deputy Gould that I too have two daughters who are fluent Irish speakers. One of them, Theresa, trained in Dingle, An Daingean. I want to thank the Gaeltacht communities that we have in Kerry - Baile na Sceilge, Uíbh Ráthaigh, Daingean Uí Chúis and all those areas. We are really proud of our Gaeltacht areas because we see how they have survived over the centuries and brought their language - our own language - forward and how they live for it every day. Everything they do is through Irish - add, subtract or whatever it is. They are very fluent. I cannot let this moment go without congratulating the two club teams that won the senior and intermediate all-Ireland football championships this year. We are very proud of them.”
“If vulnerable people, especially the elderly, are so far from a doctor when something goes wrong, the only option I see for them is to be taken to the university hospital in Tralee. They may not need that. I am pleading with the Government to look into this because in the bad times when the country had very little, Kilgarvan had a doctor’s surgery. The doctor lived there. It was the same all over, including in Kenmare, Sneem, Lauragh and other such rural places. The GPs worked all hours, day and night, and did great work. We need them back again. The country had nothing at the time but it had doctors.”
“Invariably, people there cannot get a GP or a SouthDoc doctor cannot get to them, so all they can do is ring for an ambulance to be taken all the way to University Hospital Kerry, which is in Tralee. We need to see what can be done to bring the GPs nearer to the people, because people, including children, get sick at night. I remember on a Friday being told the story that my granddaughter had stopped breathing. The family failed to get a GP and an ambulance landed an hour and a half later. It was very worrying. The child is all right and grand now. It is very worrying for a first-time parent to see this happening and to have to wait for so long. These are the kinds of things we must avoid.”
“Killarney’s population has increased and it is desperately hard for new families and others who come to the area to find a doctor to care for them. We need more doctors there. In rural areas, it is not possible to have GPs in the way we used to. They are not provided with enough funding to operate surgeries of their own, to have secretaries of their own or to have their own people running their practices. It is just not happening. The only chance that doctors get is to join an existing group of doctors, and that only happens in the very big urban areas, which means rural areas are left without a GP, especially at night-time. SouthDoc does great work, but Kerry is a massive area. Faraway places like Lauragh and Eskadawer, which is west of Lauragh and only a mile from Ardgroom, are 50 miles from Killarney.”
“I thank the Social Democrats for this very worthwhile motion. I also thank the Government for the large amount of funding that was provided for services in Kerry, including an ambulance depot for Cahersiveen, which is much needed. People there struggled in the past to get an ambulance. University Hospital Kerry received quite a lot of money to increase beds and services there. I very much welcome a minor injury unit for Killarney, where the population sometimes doubles and trebles in the summertime. The mind boggles at the amount of money for its design - over €800,000. What will it cost before it is finished? Nevertheless, we want to get it finished and we need it very badly. The story about GPs in Kerry is no different from that across the rest of the country.”
“I have three minutes. These two people came into the school from the Department, talked and went around the classrooms. That is not right and it should not happen. The Minister and Minister of State have to take the blame and ensure that does not happen again. That is what I am asking them.”
“In Kerry we have quite a big problem where we have children from other countries who have language difficulties. If we did not have SNA teachers to help them, the rest of the children would be held back. Does the Minister of State understand that? That has to be looked at and brought into the equation to ensure every child gets what they need. Some children have to be helped to go to the bathroom. There are all these little things. Some of them have to be helped to be fed. After a while they get going and pass out other children. That is the truth of it. I am very disappointed and I apologise as a Member of Dáil Éireann for what happened last week. It should not have happened. Our teachers are doing their level best. There was no one of them idle. I do know that in certain schools-----”
“That did not happen in every school but it happened in a good few of them. I advise the Minister of State of that. This is a real problem for me because we were always brought up with the idea that it is in the Constitution that the children of this country must be treated equally. Not alone are we not doing that now, we are hurting the more disadvantaged children. These are the children who need a bit of help. Different things can be a problem for different children. They can develop certain problems. It is a real issue for young parents when they find there is something wrong with their child and have to get the child assessed and do everything they can to make him or her as good as the rest of the children. That takes too long as it is. Many other problems arise with little children when they first go to school.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about this very important matter. I welcome all the concerned people in the Gallery. I thank all of the SNA teachers, ordinary teachers and principals we have in Kerry for the wonderful work they have been doing for the past great number of years. We all rely on teachers and need them very much. I am glad the Government paused this case and problem that was raised among our schools in Kerry last week and, indeed, right around the country. A pause is not enough for me. We must get to know how a child deserves an SNA. That is not people arriving into a school like they did a couple of months ago and going into a room by themselves without going to the classrooms or to meet the teachers. They just said who they were and, after an hour and a half, they went off.”
“The Minister of State spoke about a task force. I do not know what good this task force is going to do but I ask the Minister of State to do something, please. This is his time. He is the Minister of State with responsibility for the fisheries. I am calling him out now because we had fellas there before who did not do their job. He is there this time and he has a chance to do something about it. I ask him to seriously get down to work.”
“There was something serious wrong before this cut in the quotas at all. For the last three years, 2025, 2024 and 2023, no mackerel came into the villages of Kilgarvan or Kenmare. They are not to be seen and not to be had. Who is taking them? Where are they going? Why is it being allowed? Have we anyone who can shout "stop"? We hear now that because of the EU Presidency, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade is going to bulk up our Army or whatever it is. I do not know what that is for. These people are down on their knees. They went out bad days and good days to try to bring home a bit of a living and to keep food on the table, all the way from Castletownbere, in to Kenmare and out to the Iveragh Peninsula, all the way along the Dingle Peninsula and up to the mouth of the Shannon Estuary.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this very serious and important topic. Every one of us knows that Ireland is surrounded by water. We should and do own our waters and I cannot understand for the life of me how the UK is entitled to fish in the coastal waters that obtain to the 26 Counties. All up the west belongs to Southern Ireland up as far as the tip of Donegal. We should be entitled to fish it. How have they a say on us having to shed 23,000 jobs? What are these fellas going to live in? Will they live in the wind or the sea air? God almighty, people are so hard at it, and people cannot keep a roof over their head even if they are in work every day and night as well. This is hurting the whole community. It is hurting the shops, the service men, the garages and every sector of the coastal community.”
“It was to be a faster way of delivering housing. The problem, which I raise here continually, is that many people in Kerry cannot build a house of their own because they cannot get planning permission. Who is dealing with that? Is it going to be sorted out? It is time it was. God damn it but if these people go to the expense of trying to build houses for themselves, surely the smallest bit of help we could give them is to give them a fair crack at getting planning permission. This urban regeneration clause is causing severe difficulty far from towns where people who never lived in a town are being denied the right to build houses. Will the Minister of State please do something about those things?”
“I ask again about the tenant in situ scheme. The Minister of State said money has been allocated to it. Will he talk to Kerry County Council to see what is wrong and why it cannot operate the tenant in situ scheme? Elected members in Kerry have been asking the local authority to buy land banks to build local authority houses in small villages, such as Scotia's Glen, Gneeveguilla, Firies, Curragh, Currans and all these places. I hear the council is slow to buy these land banks because it will be hit with the residential zoned land tax. Is that right? That is serious. Where is the proposal to allow granny flats to be built behind residential properties? It was mooted about 12 months ago but nothing has happened since. Where is the proposal on modular homes? I do not see them materialising in Kerry.”