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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“We certainly need more psychiatrists but we need more psychologists as well to talk to them and to understand. It is only people like that who can understand the problems they have. Some of it can be hereditary. It has been in families and we know that. We are all united here together that the services must be enhanced and increased. We must help these lovely young people and people who often leave this earth too soon. We have all been at the funerals. We know the trauma it leaves behind for families. It is serious. We have to do more.”
“I am glad that the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, when she spoke earlier said she would increase services in Kerry. By God, we certainly need them. I am appealing to her to get hold of the HSE and ensure that happens. I hear many other Deputies talking here about how ordinary emergency departments are not the place. They certainly are not. We should have a separate room and separate people to deal with these young people - it is often young people who go in. They have troubles from different things, possibly including addiction. There is savage pressure on youngsters now who are going to college, trying to compete and trying to stay in education. It might be hard for them to find their path and which way they want to go. There is so much we could do.”
“In 2016 I had only been up here a very short time when I got a call from a young family, the brothers and sisters of a young boy who was threatening to commit suicide. His father had done it five or six years before that. They were up day and night with him. They had him in a certain hospital at this time and the hospital was letting him go home. They were dreading the weekend and wondering how they would mind him for another weekend. I rang the hospital and I was very glad that a senior nurse came on the phone to me and promised she would look after him. She kept him for three weeks in that hospital. He is perfect today and, even if I never do anything else in my life, I will be glad of that. We are not able to do it for enough people.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this very important issue. I am glad Sinn Féin has brought it forward here this evening. Every one of us has known a lot of people who committed suicide. It is very sad when you lose very fine people that way. We would all love to do a whole lot more for them. We need to do more because the national survey from the Office of the Inspector of Mental Health Services has found that international best practice is not available in most emergency departments in Ireland. I can honestly say we do not have enough facilities in Kerry to deal with the number of people who have problems, especially young people. What happened with south Kerry CAMHS and north Kerry CAMHS is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“We need to be informed a lot more regarding the assurances involved. Will we get our money back? When will we get it back? Will there be interest paid on the loan? We did not cause the war. When we part with this money or sign our name to this loan, we will have no more to do with it. All we can do is hope that someone will give it back to us. I cannot see that happening. As the days go by and as we move into another spring, I am of the view that this war is going to continue. We may not ever get our money back. We need to debate this far more and we need to know what we are getting into.”
“We know the Russians have done the people of Ukraine wrong, but we are neutral and cannot do anything about the Russians. We cannot detect them. There is an addendum here to the effect that they money will be taken out of Russia's funds when the war is over. There was a lot of talk by Ursula von der Leyen over the past number of weeks that she was going to take the money out of Russian funds now. This is the new notion - to get us involved in it. Why does Ms von der Leyen not take the money from those funds now if she is woman enough to do it? Why implicate us? I am very concerned about where this will lead and about how much we are involving ourselves. We need to know more. I have received many calls since we got notice this morning that this debate was going to take place.”
“Every man, woman and child has been put to the pin of their collar trying to survive. The cost of living has become exorbitantly high. There are people on trolleys in our hospitals every day. Our infrastructure is in a terrible way. Many people are getting notices to quit. We do not have the water infrastructure in Kenmare to build 170 houses. There are over 40 settlements that do not have either treatment plants or proper treatment plants. We gave President Zelenskyy €125 million a couple of weeks ago. I need to know how much Ireland is committing to. Is it a quarter or a third of the €90 billion? It is a serious figure in any event, and we need to be told exactly what it is. We need both a proper debate and an understanding of what is involved. The first time I heard about this was yesterday.”
“I am very concerned about this departure, this loan of €90 billion and that we are going to be tied into it. There are important questions here. We are here at the behest of the people who elected us, to account for their welfare and ensure taxpayers' money is properly spent. We are accountable for it. I have not been told how much Ireland is committing. How much of the €90 billion are we borrowing? I did not see any speech written out by the Minister. It is hard to take it in as someone is talking but there was no written speech. I went down to look for a copy of the Minister's speech and there was none there. This is very vague. Like others have asked, will it implicate us in the war and interfere with our neutrality? We are only a small country on the edge of Europe. We are facing tough financial times.”
“I ask Irish Water, Kerry County Council's environmental section and the engineers who were involved in the water services and sewerage services previously to work together to resolve this. A sum of €998,000 was made available by the Department. The residents have collected €74,000. There is a shortfall of about €400,000. Wherever it comes from, that money will have to be got. Irish Water will have to be deployed. This is an emergency. The tourist season is approaching. In Killarney, tourism is the prime income for many people.”
“The outfall is into the lakes of Killarney, so that is where it eventually finished up. There is a problem here. Irish Water has taken responsibility for the duties relating to this matter. A total of €998,000 was allocated to Kerry County Council. The council could not get Irish Water to work with it in order to do the necessary work. It cannot deal with the matter at all now because it does not have responsibility for it. I am asking the Minister of State and the Taoiseach to get involved. The people in the village have waited seven years for action. There is an environmental hazard. It is not fair on the town of Killarney to allow this. It is also not fair on the estates in question.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about water, water treatment plants and sewage treatment plants. Many of our towns and villages do not have either adequate water or sufficient capacity in their treatment plants. There are many villages and settlements that do not have wastewater treatment plants. I wish to focus my attention on two estates at the top of Aghadoe where the outfall is down into the lakes of Killarney. I have raised this numerous times, including with the Taoiseach and as a Topical Issue. It is still going on. The matter has not been resolved. There are two treatment plants there that are completely outdated. Sewage from them is spilling over. This time the last year during the storm and the flooding that followed, it flowed down the road. Where did it finish up? We all know where it had to finish up.”
“In recent days, sika deer have been declared an alien, invasive species and must be culled. I have been highlighting the damage these deer do for more than 25 years. Every day, they cause carnage on roads. Many people have been killed, injured or maimed and cars have been damaged and broken and are no longer any good. Farmers are adversely affected. Sika deer are spreading TB, damaging and devouring crops and breaking fences. Farmers are being robbed daily by these deer. When will this Government - and the Minister is a part of it - begin the complete cull of the sika deer as has been ordained by the EU? It is our duty. We have to comply with all the other things the EU brings forward and we have to contend with them.”
“I am on the road every day and night and out everywhere but I never heard of this nitrous gas before. That is how it is. I am thankful for the opportunity to talk about this. I will vote for legislation when it is brought forward. I know Sinn Féin would like to have this brought forward now but I am honest, and maybe there is more to be looked at. We will give the Minister the chance to do that.”
“It is good that we have this talk and that legislation will be put in place in the short term. I will ask the Minister to expedite this. He said it would be nine months. I would like to have it put in place maybe in three or four months' time. We are talking about human life. When something happens in human life and if people die, they cannot be brought back, so there is urgency. As I said at the outset, I know little about this. I am thankful for being made aware of it. I hope that we will all work together and ensure that proper legislation is brought forward to deal with it. I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, to ensure we get the answer and the legislation we need to curb this. As well as that, I would like people to be made more aware of this. I thought I knew a lot.”
“I thank Deputy Ward for making us all aware of this. If anyone thinks I knew anything about nitrous gas or laughing gas or whatever it is, I did not. I can understand now, since it has been explained to me, its disastrous effect. It can seriously impair youngsters. Perhaps the Bill will do nothing but make parents aware and make us all more aware. I was listening to the Minister. Apparently, he does not have the legislation he wants to put in place ready yet. He says this is being covered by other rules or other regulations and is covered in a different way, but I would like to see more stringent controls and awareness for youngsters who may be inclined to seek this buzz, like Deputy Gogarty said, or whatever it is. Youngsters, being youngsters, will try different things at different points in time.”
“That is what I am saying. There is some good in the Bill, but I hope a lot more good will come out of it because we need to ensure anyone who needs home help and is awarded it gets it. It should be included in this Bill that someone is going around to see what is happening and why people are not getting home help.”
“When I meet the youngsters who are trained up, they say they have not got any work yet. When I meet the elderly person or their family, they say they were awarded home help on a certain date but no one has arrived yet. In line with this new Bill, which is being brought in to protect and look after other measures, I am asking the Minister of State to get some section working to see how long people are without home help. How long after they leave the university hospital and go to the district hospital are they waiting for home help? That is what is happening. What happens when it gets out of order altogether? They have to apply for the fair deal scheme and try to go into a nursing home. The family does not want that, the elderly person certainly does not want it and the Government should not want it because it is costing a lot more.”
“Indeed, our community hospitals like Kenmare Community Hospital and St. Columbanus Community Hospital do great work for long-term care as well as short-term care. People are very appreciative of those settings as well as the private care that is provided. In County Kerry we have great private nursing homes and they are doing great work but they are all under savage pressure and it is hard at any stage to get a bed for someone. When people are ready to go home, we should have a home care package. There is a lot of talk about it, but it does not materialise. When the person is a good bit better and can and should go home, they do not seem to be able to do so. Even though they are awarded a package and the hours are allocated, it does not materialise for whatever reason.”
“We would save a lot of money if we were to help people with those therapies and ensure they get them in their home or wherever they are. Whatever hospital or whatever care setting it is, we should be providing more physiotherapy for those people. There are lots of other therapies that elderly people would benefit from because when they are not moving around at all, they seize up and the problem gets worse. Two people are needed to operate hoists and such things whereas if the elderly people were kept going as good as they could be and for as long as they could, we would save the State a lot of money. We need to look into a lot of those things. Why do we not look at the Denmark model to see what is happening there and why they have hardly any use for nursing homes? I appreciate the great work our nursing homes are doing.”
“It is very unfair. No one could put a price on the amount of money these family carers are saving the State. They need to be looked after. The means test is totally out of kilter. We are helping them in a small way this year. It is supposed to be abolished over five years. I am asking the Minister of State to expedite that. For elderly people I see a great need for therapy and for physiotherapy. When old people go into hospital, they have other problems like viruses and they have different issues. We do not have enough physiotherapists in our hospitals. What would be wrong with having physiotherapists call to people's homes? If a person cannot move around or if there is something stiff with their leg or hand, physiotherapy works for a lot of people and it will work for those people as well.”
“The space is there but we are waiting for the new hospital to open. What is the cause of the delay? Has the Department the staff engaged? Has the Department found the staff? Those are the questions people are asking. Carers provide invaluable service. Some of them were terrorised with the notion that the Revenue Commissioners were going after them. Many of them were wondering what they would be done for and what they might be caught for. These things are terrible. The amount of lines the media gave it was totally out of balance and out of kilter when most of it is not true at all. One of the things we looked for in our programme to support the Government was the abolition of the means test because many of those who care for their people at home are doing it voluntarily and they would do it anyway if they were to get nothing for it.”
“It is a community hospital and nursing unit. It is there on the side of the bypass but it has not been opened. When that is opened, we are supposed to develop the old district hospital and St. Columbanus Home to have a primary care centre and more respite beds. People are being told that where carers mind people at home and have to be with them all the time they are entitled to four weeks of respite in the year. Those people are entitled to a bit of respite, but they are not getting it because we do not have the beds for respite in Killarney, Kenmare, Listowel, Dingle, Cahersiveen or anywhere else. We do not have enough respite beds. Then we are waiting for a minor injuries unit in the town of Killarney. This could be put into the old buildings and it could be a new modern unit.”
“As I said, they are not supposed to be doing some of these things and this is ridiculous. We need to develop a model like they have in Denmark. There are hardly any nursing homes there. Why is this? It is because everyone is looked after in their own homes where it costs a lot less. The Government needs to look into this a whole lot more and go into it in greater depth. I appreciate that it is looking after the issue of people not being properly trained or Garda vetted and there could be other problems. It will look after that side of it but we need to work harder on the side of it whereby the patient, elderly person or disabled person is being left without home help. We have other issues in Kerry also which all concern elderly people. We have a new community hospital in Killarney that has been finished for almost a year.”
“It was awarded to them and allocated to them but no one showed up because we keep getting told there is no staff. I have known these cases and I cannot understand it. If the Bill is going to mean anything, this issue needs to be dealt with to explain whether or not home help is available and whether staff are trained up. If they are not trained up, they should be. As other Deputies have said, maybe we are not paying the home helps enough. Maybe too much pressure is being put on them. I hear they are being told to go here and there and to the next person. It hurts me very much when I hear that a home help is not allowed to do certain things for elderly people who may be not agile or mobile enough to do something for themselves. I know that some of them do so anyway.”
“If we want to keep these old people, and these people who are not able to manage for themselves, in their own homes then some home care plan should be put in place at the point in time they leave University Hospital Kerry. It should not be left to the managers of the district hospitals, who are asked to make the bed available for someone else after a week or two. The conveyor belt keeps going on, people do not stop needing help and another person will need to go into the bed. The home help should be in place and we should have enough home helps. I know young fellows who have trained to be home helps and I have often asked them whether they are working and they have told me they were not. At the same time, I know of elderly people who cannot get home help.”
“These elderly people are then otherwise compromised. Will the Bill ensure they are looked after properly? This is what it should do. We need an awful lot more home help. When someone goes into University Hospital Kerry with a virus or whatever it is, they fully intend to come home but they may have to go to a community hospital or district hospital in the various places. A home care plan should be put in place at the time they leave University Hospital Kerry because they will spend a certain number of days, a week or two weeks at the very most, in a community hospital or district hospital. This is not happening. This is where the void and hurt happens. The family may be not available or may be far away.”
“I thank all of the people involved in home care and all of the home helps around the county of Kerry and around all of the other counties. I know the great work they do in the confined time and space they are given to do it. While I welcome regulation, and the Bill states it will ensure home care is regulated and standards are in place for all home care support for all who need it, the question I ask the Minister of State is whether there is a deficiency in the amount of home help that older people are getting. Will this be highlighted in the Bill? Is the Bill catering for this? I know of too many people who are not getting enough home help. They are left behind on weekends and holidays. When the staff, who are entitled to their holidays, go on their own holidays and things are arranged, no one is there to take up the slack.”
“They know they are in their elder years and that they do not have much time. They do not have the money to invest in these systems and they feel it is not worth their while. Normally, they would have turf, timber and so on. They are afraid to use those because of all the talk of the last Government which was driven by the Green Party. It did more harm than will ever be repaired. It will take too long to repair it for these elderly people. The facts are that since Bord na Móna closed down, the cost of electricity has gone up day by day. We must do something to ensure the regulator steps in and ensures fair play is had by the people. There are others here who want to talk. I will finish.”
“The blame goes back to the Government. The Government is in charge of the regulator or he is supposed to be answerable to it, but I cannot see any answer. I do not see him doing any work at all on behalf of the people we were elected to represent here. I appeal again to see whether something can be done because the cost of living is tied to that and the cost of energy and heating. Without thinking of poor people, I come across people on a daily basis who believe they cannot buy a bag of turf now or get a bag of turf or that they should not have a fire. They feel guilty about it. These are elderly people who think they are doing harm and they are frozen in their homes. They cannot afford anything. We hear about underfloor heating and all these systems, like air to water heat pumps.”
“We need to do something about that because many people feel that since the day we closed Bord na Móna in 2020 the cost of electricity has gone up every other day. That is so wrong and we do not hear our energy regulator or regulators, or whoever they are, saying anything and it falls on poor people. The cost of living has gone through the roof in the last six months and it is exploding as we are talking. There is no end to the increase in the price of things. When energy costs so much, the cost of everything else goes up. We have seen the prices at the pumps have gone mad again in recent times. There is the odd one that nearly maintains the same price all the time. We cannot understand it. There must be a regulator that ensures fair play is given to the consumer but I do not think he is acting or that he is there at all.”
“We cannot be beholden to one supply from the east all the time because we need gas to keep the country going and keep electricity flowing. It has been suggested to me many times that we should be using the old Kinsale Head gas field to store gas. We should buy it when it is cheaper rather than waiting until it gets expensive and we have to buy it. Often we are paying the highest prices for the sources we are using. We should ensure we are not paying the maximum price for it all the time. The other problem is the regulator. Is she there at all, or who is she or who is he? We do not seem to see any action or any come hither put on the electricity companies that have varied so much in their price increases in the last 12 months.”
“I am glad this gas safety framework is to be put on a statutory basis. It is only right that people who are trained and qualified are installing and maintaining equipment. They know what they are doing for unsuspecting people who have a problem or are having something new driven by gas installed in their homes. People are depending on those who are trained and qualified and this is an explosive product that could leave many people hurt, injured or worse if it is not put together right. This Bill took a long time to come before us and we are all going to vote for it. What we look forward to is Shannon LNG, which has been on the back-burner since long before I came up here in 2016. There have been too many delays. We need to ensure this is made available to the people.”
“In light of the fact we have not seen a mackerel on our side of the country for three years, what is going on? What can the Government do and what will it do for the fishing industry? It is practically decimated. I hope it will do something for these good-living people who have to contend with everything, the dangers of the sea and the weather and everything else. Are we going to lose them altogether?”
“There is a vote coming up. A lot of people are dissatisfied and disappointed with the vote on Mercosur. People are worried about their health and so on. A vote is coming up in Europe where the MEPs will have a vote. We understand from assertions by certain MEPs from both parties that they intend to vote for the Mercosur agreement. What control do the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties have over these MEPs? Can they insist they vote against Mercosur for the good of our consumers and farmers? I was in an establishment in Cork city yesterday evening and I met a man from Eyeries. I started asking him about lads I knew from along the Beara Peninsula and how they were getting on with the fishing. He frightened me when he told me the number of fellas who had got out and that more fellas were contemplating getting out of it.”
“It has been taken charge of by the council yet Irish Water and Kerry County Council will not or have not decided what they are doing with the €1 million they have got from the Department. Neither will not perform, or they will not perform together, to provide a new treatment plant for these two estates. This has been going on for six years.”
“The way we are going in Kenmare anyway, it will take 250 years before the people in Dublin will see one drop of water out of the Shannon unless they drive down and take a bucket of water out of it themselves. Kerry County Council has been trying for many years, unsuccessfully, to get water for Kenmare. We have spent €30 million on a treatment plant. We have a new water plant there and yet we have no water to put into the pipes in Kenmare. I am asking the Minister of State to look at this again. I have asked the Taoiseach about it in this Chamber before. There is just one other thing. There are two housing estates in Aghadoe - Birch Hill and Old Killarney Village - looking down on the lakes of Killarney. They are waiting for their treatment plant to be replaced.”
“I thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward this very important motion today. I want to talk about Kenmare first of all. Two housing applications have been held up for the past number of months. They were asked to get a letter from Irish Water to say that it would have water to supply the 170 houses to be built. They cannot get the letter from Irish Water. The time is running out and they will have to pull their applications. This is for 170 houses. No house has been built in Kenmare since 2006 some 20 years ago. Kenmare is surrounded by mountains and lakes. It is surrounded by water. We have more water than any other part of Ireland and just cannot get it into a pump. People are talking about taking water from the River Shannon and bringing it to Dublin.”
“The same blockage is caused on the national roads. People cannot get in or out on the national roads. What is the story with the granny flats? It is nine months now since the Minister mentioned that. Is there some hold-up on that? Can it be sorted out once and for all and put before us here? We do not have any affordable housing scheme in Kerry? What is going to happen with the new idea we have for treatment plants on unserviced land?”
“How many more sleeps will we have to endure before we do something about the strict urban generated pressure clause that is discriminating against many people in rural parts of Kerry and preventing them from obtaining planning permission, or even applying for it? I have asked for this so many times. Where or what is the hold-up? I thought that it was the Government's intention to sort this out. Is it the staff in the housing Department? Where is the blockage or what is happening? All these people are looking for is permission to build a house for themselves. They do not want one penny from any one of us inside here. All they want is to get permission to build a house.”
“First of all, I wish you, a Cheann Comhairle, all the elected Members, all the staff, everyone involved in this great House and the people who are running it all the very best for Christmas and the new year. I welcome the exemption for the change of use from vacant commercial properties to residential use. I thought that was in place, but if it is being regularised, that is all the better. I also welcome the increase in the provision of animal housing under class 6 of Part 3 of Schedule 2 by 50% from 200 sq. m to 300 sq. m and the increase in the total from 300 sq. m to 450 sq. m. Everything at home is now measured by my grandson on the basis of how many sleeps there are until Christmas Day when Santa Claus comes.”
“I am asking the Minister and the Minister of State to work together to ensure that it does not happen. I welcome the gentlemen in the Public Gallery. They are concerned and we are all concerned with them. We have to stand with them. We have to do something more drastic than what we are doing because we have not been good enough up to now. We were taken to the cleaners and I am asking the Government to put an end to it once and for all. This is more serious than any other thing that has happened in the past 15 or 20 years because we were bad enough up until then but now we have been cleaned out altogether. I am very upset about this. It is a very serious matter for people whose lives depend on it.”
“They have to ensure they put a strategy in place to teach them a lesson that they cannot come into Irish waters. We own them. That is the starting point. They should only be let in if we let them in. They should be threatened with whatever bit of artillery we have because it is our property, our coastline, our jobs and our people who are being affected. It is time that we stood up and took no more of their bull because that is what they are giving us. They are giving us nothing and we are just begging for everything - begging for the derogation and begging for Mercosur. We are entitled to live as well as the Brazilians or anyone else that is interfering with our markets. They are interfering with our commodity here in fish that has been cleaned out and we just stand idly by. That cannot happen.”
“Everyone was getting a bit out of it, including the shopkeeper, the publican, the garage, fitters and the small processors. This is going to be devastating. The one thing I was very proud of was seeing lorry after lorry coming from Castletownbere going up through our village in the dark of night and maybe going down again in the middle of the night. They seem to operate at night because the road is so bad, they can see the lights and it is safer it for them to travel at night. We appreciate them for the work they have been doing diligently and without any error. It is nothing that Ireland has done. We have not let Europe down but we are being taken to the cleaners. Christmas Day is coming. It will be here in less than a week but the Minister and the Minister of State cannot sit down during that time.”
“We have had the short straw since we joined the European Union but this is cause enough for me anyway to say that we will have to withdraw from a lot of their carry-on if we are going to lose our own fishing waters. Since we joined the EU, we have not had the benefit of them totally like we should have had. We saw a demonstration when we were in the convention centre during Covid. The fishing fleet came up the river and represented themselves so correctly and so properly. Nobody had the one story. The fishermen all had their own different stories and they were very interesting to listen to. Sadly, whatever has happened now has superseded all that for the worse. It is not good enough for people. When fishermen are affected, many coastal communities are affected.”
“We complained about them a lot over the years but this is one of the good things they did but we have let it go and that is not satisfactory in their eyes, my eyes or anyone's eyes. To think that there will be foreign vessels fishing off our shores and fellas will be standing on the seashore looking out at them is not fair. I am asking the Minister and the Minister of State to ensure that they work together with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and all the Ministers to ensure that whatever veto they can use is used or whatever they can do is done because their fate and our fate will be decided if this is going to be the end result of it.”
“So many people have given so much to the industry and employed so many people. This is going to finish us altogether. People were not happy with the fishing they had. It is about three years since I have seen a mackerel. We know for a long time that something has gone wrong and now this complicates it further. I am telling the Minister and Minister of State that we cannot accept this. They will have to pull out all the stops whatever it takes. It will not do to do it here. They have go into whatever room this is decided in and threaten them with everything. We have more miles of seashore in our little country. It was one of the biggest industries we had. It was actually the English who taught us how to fish back in the 1600s.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this very serious matter. When we talk about fishermen, we are talking about an awful lot of people. We are talking about coastal communities and people who depend on it so much to eke a living. It is often dangerous and contrary. People have gone through a lot to put the fleets that they have together. To think that in some room somewhere with a stroke of a pen that we can destroy up to 2,300 jobs in the fishing industry in our own country is one of the most serious things that has happened since I came to Dáil Éireann in 2016. I might be a small bit away from the sea, but I am not that far. I have known all my life people like Michael Orpen and all those people who did so much to employ people from Castletownbere all the way over along and down into Cahersiveen and back to Dingle.”
“I wish to raise TB outbreaks in Kerry. We are being ravaged, especially in east Kerry. The issue many farmers are raising with me is an increase to the ceiling cap for compensation, which is limited to €3,000 at present. They fear for their financial future because they will not be able to buy back in cows for that, especially the number of high bred dairy cows and suckler cows that will cost much more to replace. Farmers are asking if something can be done to raise that ceiling. I am sorry the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon, is gone but I know he was here all morning. The other question is there are a number of people now-----”
“We have an interest in the people who keep poultry, depend on them and put money into them. These things do fall out of the sky. It is very sad when if you go into a field and see the ewe going around the field looking for her lamb, baaing and upset. The Deputies have no interest in that. How is that? I cannot understand that or appreciate that. I appeal to the Ministers to ensure that the Government to a man and woman votes against this fox hunting Bill, as I will be doing.”
“I assure people out there that I will be voting against this fox hunting Bill introduced by Deputy Coppinger and whoever else is standing with her because it is not fair on rural Ireland. When I say rural Ireland, I mean the towns and villages because those people depend on the farmers as well for their income. They all get a bit out of it. If the lamb goes down the field in the fox's mouth or is torn alive and left for dead, no one will get anything out of them. This issue of a financial interest has been mentioned. It is as if we are betting on some stock exchange or something and that we were going to gain from it. It is such a ridiculous statement for Deputy Whitmore to make saying that we have a financial interest. We have an interest in the well-being of farmers around the country.”