Michael Collins
Cork South-West · Independent Ireland · Ireland
“This matter has been raised twice already this morning, but it is hugely important. I will make a personal appeal to the Taoiseach regarding Skyclarys and the further delay that has now arisen. Yesterday, Emma O'Shea came to Leinster House from west Cork with her mother, father and brother.”
“Another huge problem which normally arises in August is that relating to school buses. Parents have no way to get their children to school because of the nearest school rule. The current and previous programmes for Government contain promises that this will be done away with, but nothing has happened. The rule needs to be abolished.”
“Every parent knows that September has become one of the most expensive months of the year. While free schoolbooks are welcome, many families now face growing costs for other items. Parents are being asked to purchase laptops that cost €400 or more, make increased payments for school transport and pay charges to cover examination fees.”
“Either 25 children are left without a school place this September, or two senior infants classes are merged into one class of 34 children. Does the Minister of State agree that schools should not be punished for helping to solve an enrolment crisis? Will he immediately sanction the additional teaching posts required for St.”
“Education should not be measured by means of the distance someone lives from school, and school transport should not be measured on that basis either. I want to raise a matter that Councillor Bill Clear brought to my attention. It is a very serious issue regarding St. Corban’s National School in Naas in County Kildare.”
“I was chairperson of a board of management and know the difficulties that schools face just because they are one or two children short. That can be made up as the year goes on but it is a crisis that Councillor Clear finds unacceptable.”
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“He did not say that when he was below at the ploughing championships. He did not say that when he was canvassing around rural places. He told us we were great people. We now find out that Fine Gael does not like farmers or rural people at all. The Minister of State should read his statement. It was not good enough.”
“We should sit down and put together a cross-party group of people with maybe extreme views on every side, as long as they would not be getting overly angry with each other, to see if they could come to a consensus in the middle because there is a middle ground there somewhere. We do have to look after the environment, and I am big into that. However, it should not come at a price and it is coming at a huge price to the people of rural Ireland with the carbon tax. Carbon tax hits rural people 99% more than anybody else. Those are the facts. People can be in denial and they can say this or that. We know the mindset within Fine Gael. Leo Varadkar, the former leader of Fine Gael, has proven it this week when he decimated rural people and agriculture. It was an absolute disgrace. That was his mindset the whole time and he is now coming clean.”
“We have been a long time talking about targets in this House and we are way off our game. To be honest, I have spoken quite a lot about Barryroe oil field and fossil fuels since I came into the Dáil, and I often got Deputies sitting to my right screaming and roaring back at me. After the past two weeks, they now know that we cannot do without fossil fuels. Common sense has prevailed. In fairness, I will be honest that I need education as well. There is no point in me just shouting that fossil fuels are the way forward and moving on. That is ridiculous too, but I always felt that Barryroe should have been explored because it could have been a chance to fund renewables, the renewables that we promised this nation when I came into the Dáil ten years ago and that have not been delivered. It is the only way forward.”
“I do not do Airbnb but the Government knows damn well that if I had to get a planning officer to come out for compliance, it could cost me €100,000, €150,000 or €200,000. The Government is going to wipe out the industry.”
“We have held public meetings on this with rooms full of people who are seriously concerned about the little bit of side income they had but the Government never listened and never sat down with them. The Government did not give a damn, basically. I live in an area that totally depends on this income. I spoke to the Taoiseach here about the lady in Courtmacsherry and others who walked out because they could not cope with the pressure being put on them. There would have been no need for that if the Government had sat down and spoken to the people who were running the businesses down through the years and come up with a solution, but not this, which is a can-kicking exercise and then ruin in two years' time. That is basically what is written down here.”
“Is this a tactic the Government is using now and is it another attack on the people of rural Ireland? I have mentioned it several times in the Dáil and the Taoiseach has said to me there will be no problem at all, not to worry at all and that it is all in my head. God almighty, what the Government is going to do is down here in a document. People are being given two years to be planning compliant. That is wipeout in two years. It is a case of kick the can down the road for a few months - that is all it is - instead of understanding the crisis we have at present, which is that the Government is going to wipe out tourism. We got two years out of it and that was a hell of a struggle, but that is not good enough. I pay tribute to Sarah Cronin.”
“The Minister of State is saying here that people will have to have complied by 20 May 2026. I spent the past seven or eight weeks in the Dáil trying to bring the Minister before us. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State. He is not the correct Minister to be here because he has nothing to do with tourism. I am not disrespecting the Minister of State. He has to do it. He is busy enough without being dragged into this. It is a disgrace that a Minister for tourism in the course of seven or eight weeks has failed to come before the Dáil to talk about something that affects tens of thousands of people's lives in this country and that has to be signed up to by 20 May. It is outrageous. That is what it is. The Minister of State cannot be carrying the can for it but he is certainly being forced to carry the can.”
“Regarding anyone telling me or the Minister of State here to tick a planning box and then they will say we are fine if we are not complying, the bottom line is that all these people's businesses have survived down through the decades with the planning that was there already. What we're saying is that there should be registration but no planning guidelines are needed for anyone unless he or she is a new Airbnb operator setting up tomorrow morning.”
“My mother ran a bed and breakfast in the 1970s so I know well the benefit it brought. It basically fed us. Those are the basics. These are hard-working people, mainly women. These are hard-working women who work at home and can run an Airbnb. The legislation as it was meant to be brought before us was scandalous. I attended the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and I heard the planners inside saying "tick away the box that you have no planning and don't worry at all". When I asked them whether they would put that in writing so I could hand that out to my constituents, they would not do it because the Minister of State knows as well as I do.”
“Will the Minister explain how this Bill is expected to support tourism policy, particularly in rural and coastal areas where hotels and large-scale accommodation simply do not exist? What assessment has been carried out regarding the impact on local jobs, seasonal employment and the viability of tourism outside major urban centres? Will the Minister commit today to publishing the legislation in full, ensuring adequate scrutiny and providing clear guidance on development and planning, and genuinely engage with those affected before asking them to comply? People do not object to regulation. What they object to is uncertainty, unfairness and being kept in the dark. Will the Minister address it? It has been well over 12 months or more since this legislation was first discussed. These are genuine people who are from all over my constituency.”
“Will the Minister explain how the proposed registration system is intended to interact with planning law, particularly in circumstances where properties were never intended for long-term residential use, where planning permissions were granted decades ago or where accommodation consists of cabins, extensions, converted outbuildings or holiday units? Will the Minister confirm whether people will be required to seek retrospective planning permission, what criteria local authorities will apply and whether national planning guidelines will be issued in advance of any enforcement? At present, constituents are being told they may not be able to trade but nobody can tell them what rules they will actually be assessed against.”
“Many of the concerns being raised are coming directly from the grassroots, small accommodation providers, self-catering operators, mixed-use homeowners and rural hosts, who are telling us very clearly that the approach is not going to work. Does the Minister accept that legislation without clarity, buy-in or realistic implementation timelines risks repeating the mistakes we have seen with poorly handled policy roll-outs, where public anger and non-compliance followed instead of constructive outcomes? There remains a complete lack of clarity around development and planning.”
“I want to raise serious and growing concerns regarding the proposed short-term letting and tourism Bill, and in particular the manner in which it is being progressed. The Bill has not yet been published, yet significant changes have already been signalled to thousands of small operators, family businesses and rural communities. Can the Minister of State clarify when the legislation will be published in full and why stakeholders have been asked to prepare for compliance in the absence of clear statutory text? Second, will he outline whether the Government intends to allow proper pre-legislative scrutiny and meaningful engagement with affected groups, or whether the intention is to fast-track or rush the Bill through the Houses, despite the scale of its impact on tourism, rural employment and local economies?”
“Two people in CoAction were able to move into these houses, but I had some fight to get them in there. No one understands the situation. This can be a solution in many towns and villages. It needs to be worked on. I would appreciate if the Minister and Minister of State could help us along that line.”
“This is the right project in the right place at the right time. It needs to be urgently brought ahead. Deputy Jen Cummins mentioned the Before We Die campaign. I certainly do not need to be educated on it because I know all about it. I spent a number of years on the board of CoAction and I see the need for people to live independently. Parents are now getting to an extremely worrying time in their lives where they are growing elderly and are concerned about where their children will end up. There are no services available, nor is there a solution. People are being told that the disabled person said they are okay, but that is not a decision they can make. We need to be looking at that. I was involved in a community project in Skull where we built 12 houses recently.”
“The proposal includes a purpose-built community hub, adult day services, respite centre and supported living apartments, all located within walking distance of Dunmanway town. This is about keeping people in their own communities, supporting independence and ensuring continuity of care as young people transition into adulthood. What makes this project stand out is that the land has been generously donated by local people, John and Mary McCarthy. Funding has already been raised by the community and the service model aligns fully with the national disability policy and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. What is needed now is certainty from the State. Capital and guaranteed revenue funding must be provided so this project can move from paper to reality. Families have waited long enough.”
“The Government must give providers like CoAction proper, secure funding so existing services can run at full capacity and planned services can open. People with disabilities and their families deserve certainty, not promises that depend on next year’s budget. There is one vital disability service project that deserves urgent Government backing. CoAction west Cork, working in partnership with the Kilbritten Tractor Run and the local community, has put forward a strong, well-planned proposal for a new respite and day service facility in Dunmanway. This project responds to a clear and growing need for autism-focused and intellectual disability services across west Cork.”
“Demand for these services is growing year on year, yet the organisation is being held back by chronic under-funding and uncertainty. There is a vacant residential bedroom that cannot be used because of a lack of funding to staff it. New residential respite developments are planned in places like Skibbereen, Bantry and Clonakilty but without guaranteed revenue funding, these projects cannot open, even when the buildings are there. Families are crying out for respite. Centres have capacity to do more but staffing, short-term funding and recruitment challenges are limiting what can be delivered. The lack of a multi-annual funding model is creating constant uncertainty for service users, their families and front-line staff.”
“It is long past time their role was recognised through a proper redeployment scheme and a workforce plan designed with SNAs themselves. At the same time, the Government is bringing back exam fees and hiking school transport charges. It is the wrong decision at the wrong time. Bus fees for secondary students are being doubled and they are being hiked by a third for primary students, pushing ordinary families, who are already stretched, to breaking point. Education should not come with barriers like this. It should be fair, accessible and based on basic decency. I wish to raise the pressures facing CoAction in west Cork and other communities and the families who rely on its services. CoAction supports hundreds of adults and children across west Cork, providing residential care, supported living, respite and vital disability services.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward. As I do not have much time, I will just touch on some of the requirements in this motion. It looks to me as if people with additional needs are always the people who are suffering in this country and fighting to get basic rights. Special needs assistants are being treated unfairly and families are paying the price. The current system is rigid, cold and completely out of touch with what is happening on the ground. In schools, children who need support are left waiting and SNAs are being pushed to the brink. That cannot continue. The Minister must engage properly with the Save our SNAs campaign and implement a fair and improved circular that works for children, parents and schools. SNAs are doing far more than they were ever originally employed to do.”
“They are all doing voluntary work dragging in funds as best they can so this project can go ahead. Will the Taoiseach look into it and find out where it is at and how we can we progress it to the point of it going to planning? That is a very important stage and it is not there at this present time.”
“The proposed development of a respite and day service support for individuals with an intellectual disability and an autism centre in Dunmanway is a live project. It is a project that has been discussed for over ten years. While it moves at a snail's pace, sometimes it stops. The former Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, did a lot of work on it - I give her credit where credit is due - and had progressed it to the point of moving faster. In recent months, John and Mary McCarthy in Dunmanway donated the grounds so now it is up to the HSE to make the next move but it continues to go from person to person because somebody moves to another area and then another area. Jim O'Mahony and the rest of the Kilbrittain committee are extremely frustrated at the way it has dragged on.”
“In 2016, when the Taoiseach was in opposition, he said: ...political parties should not think Parliament is their possession and that they can control anything that happens. To date, we have had such an experience, where Deputies have been removed from committees because they voted against the Government's line. Why has he now done a 360° turn in trying to remove Deputy Danny Healy-Rae from the agriculture committee at 3 p.m. because he voted against the Government? This decision has to be reversed and we need a debate on the issue.”
“In 2021, the company sought a licence to do exploratory drilling. This was refused by the then Minister, Eamon Ryan. Now that we are in a time of crisis, will the Government meet with the company and hear its proposals? I am not asking the Tánaiste to say yes to drilling - just to meet and see how we can tie renewables into the proposed plan for Barryroe and how the State can benefit.”
“In the past month, Ireland has seen the damage we have done to our own economy by not being energy independent. We import fossil fuel and now we know how delicate this is. One major disruption and Ireland goes dry. We all know we must steer away from fossil fuels and towards renewables but the Tánaiste knows for today, tomorrow and far into the future, tractors, lorries and hi-macs will need fossil fuel to keep the country going. Since I came into the Dáil, I have been calling for the exploration of the Barryroe oil field. Minor checks look positive and indicate it has the potential to create 45% of our gas and crude oil, which could even be more. This could be a chance to accelerate towards renewables and meet all the targets, which are not realistic at the present pace we are going.”
“We have talented young people who can take it a step further and maybe represent us at the Olympics or whatever but the parents are trying to find the money and they are fundraising. We need to look deeper into where moneys can be put to see how we can bring the very best out in these young people. It is the greatest thing ever. If kids up here in Dublin or wherever are focusing on a bit of sport, they are focused away from the bad things that are going on in the world, whether it is the drugs or the drink. That is where we need to spend our money. I support that any time going forward.”
“Let the GAA and the soccer work together because the GAA is doing so much huge voluntary work in this country and probably do not get commended on a lot of it. We need to invest more. We need to invest in academies and in bringing the youth soccer players, whether they are women or young men, to their potential. They have potential and that is where we have slipped up in this country. We have not followed it up. Players need money. Parents cannot just fork it out all the time. If you really have a committed parent, they are talking about driving their kid around to all sorts of clubs, training and games all over the place and it is all coming out of the same pocket. We have a young lad in west Cork, a kickboxer, Evan Collins, and he is trying to do the same. He is trying to travel around the world but the funds are not there.”
“That is where we can get the talent. I see Liverpool stars have gone down and played there through the years. Even if they are retired, if the Ray Houghtons - or back to the Ronnie Whelans again - and others turn up, people will travel to see them. It gives them a bit of happiness. I heard somebody mentioning community facilities here a while ago. I live myself in a community and I am on the community council in the last parish in Ireland, a place called Goleen on the Mizen Head Peninsula. We built a community facility where both soccer and GAA are played. That is a focus that we need in this country. When funds are spent, everyone in the community should be able to use the same facility.”
“Ray Houghton got great goals as well. They seem to give a lot of praise to certain people but I just remember Ronnie's volley from well outside in the field and lifted straight into the top of the net. That lifted the nation. I was there at that time. I was there as part of the celebrations. We nearly got there again. Unfortunately, it did not work out for us this time but we needed that. The country needs that bit of a boost. No matter how good the country is going it still needs that bit of a boost. My own local team, Bunratty United, has been very successful down through the years and given passionately. So many volunteers in that Schull club took it to the top level for many years. Then you look down at Drinagh Rangers. They have new facilities put in there and I commend the Government on funding that. That is what it is all about.”
“I do not have Sky because there is no point, I am never at home. I get a chance to watch Match of the Day every Saturday night. It is a religion for me to watch the matches. There is a lot of discussion here about sports and sportspeople. Deputy Paul Lawless is not here so I will keep talking away. There are sportspeople out there. We saw what happened at the weekend with Rory McIlroy's fantastic victory. At the bottom of our hearts, it gives us great pride. We saw what Troy Parrott and the Irish team did a number of weeks or months ago. It lifted the spirits of a nation. Sometimes when the nation is down, it needs that kick. We saw it before with Jack Charlton's team. We can remember Ronnie Whelan's volley against the Russians. It was probably one of the finest goals that was ever seen. He never got much praise for it.”
“Katie is an incredible soccer player for the Irish women's team and she is really passionate and has drive, along with other great soccer women out there. Last night was proof of that with our 3-2 victory. I always throw my eye on a match and it is a bad habit. If I am with somebody, it goes out the window because I keep looking at the television if there is a soccer match on. I was watching, with a bit of delight, Leeds United beat Manchester United the other night but we will not go too strong on smiling at other teams because I might be in a bit of bother myself with my own. It is a good debate. People ask why are we talking about football here? It has given people a lot of enjoyment. I myself try everything, no matter what is on, to try get home to watch Match of the Day.”
“I look at people in west Cork like David Hall and others who put every human effort they can to promote young people - I would say literally out of their own pocket - to try to get them from where they are to where they could be. Some of these people can be superstars if they get the right supports, training and funding. I know there is a lot of money spent on sports capital projects. I am not here to criticise anybody about sports capital projects. The money is out there but I just wonder are we really looking at huge talents out there, promoting those talents and taking them from where they are to where they could be? Can we get another Max Dowman? Can we get another Katie McCabe? I know I keep thinking of Arsenal players here, but anyway.”
“I respect other people and some people here in the Dáil have been treated poorly because of their honest opinion. I am certainly not having a personal go at anyone but that is my view. I am just looking at the bigger picture of soccer in general. I look at the League of Ireland. I watch it and have an interest in it. I do not get a chance to go to games. Coming back to local level, I worry about how we develop. If you look at Max Dowman playing for Arsenal. He is 16 years of age and the youngest kid who had ever scored a goal in the English premiership. How does the club mature that guy? It has had him since he was he was 13 or 14.”
“We obviously know what would happen if that was the case. We would be kicked out of every tournament that is coming up. That would have to be a decision made by UEFA, not a decision made by the FAI. If it did, it would probably be the end of Irish soccer as we know it for the next ten years. We cannot let that happen. I will not go into the details of the shocking wars that are out there. We know where they are but I would certainly never agree with anyone saying we should sideline our international team from playing with anyone. That is not a decision the FAI can make, it is a decision that UEFA has to make. If UEFA make it then, we know that, going forward, our football teams can take part in other competitions and not be thrown out of them.”
“It started when Liam Brady, David O'Leary, Frank Stapleton and Pat Jennings played there. There were I think seven Irishmen playing with at the time so it was like watching Ireland play instead of watching Arsenal play. We are suffering at the moment but I think we are holding out Sporting CP at the moment. It is 0-0 and we are 1-0 up on aggregate so it looks like we are heading to a semi-final, but at the same time, we were suffering a bit the previous weekend. I listened to a lot of the debate. As I have said, I have a serious interest in this all of my life. We are always talking about separating church from State but we should certainly separate sports from politics to a degree. Obviously, there is funding needed or whatever. I have very serious concerns about that upcoming game people do not want the Republic of Ireland to play.”
“We are talking about something I am very passionate about myself, being a soccer fan since I was four or five years of age. I have the luck or misfortune, whichever way you look at it, of following Arsenal Football Club.”
“O'Reilly's patients - I have such a letter with me - telling them not to call if they are ill. This is nothing short of bully-boy tactics from SouthDoc management. It could well lead to a loss of life. I ask the Taoiseach to intervene on behalf of every patient in Clonakilty who is under the excellent care of Dr. O'Reilly and to demand of SouthDoc management that the people of west Cork be treated like every other person in the country and be entitled to out-of-hours medical services if they are required.”
“I want to concentrate on the senior management in SouthDoc and their appalling treatment of a doctor and her patients in Clonakilty and its surrounds. Dr. Fiona O'Reilly has run an excellent practice in Clonakilty for many years. For health reasons, she is unable to do SouthDoc hours. Instead of SouthDoc working with Dr. O'Reilly, it has decided, in its wisdom, to punish her and her patients. Today, if you ring SouthDoc with an out-of-hours emergency, you are asked who your doctor is. SouthDoc will not attend to you if you say that you are a patient of Dr. O'Reilly. It will direct you to 112 or 999, or to an overcrowded accident and emergency department. This happened recently to a 16-year-old and an 84-year-old, among others. SouthDoc has written to Dr.”
“If it costs €20,000, you get €1,800 back in a grant. We are not on the real planet here. We are out of touch completely when it comes to solar, retrofitting, HVO, and hydrogen on-demand systems. The price of electric cars is astronomical. Manufacturers promise that cars will do 450 km but when you speak to the service mechanics, they tell us that you would be lucky to get 350 km. We also need to look at battery trucks. The problem is that we are laggards. Countries like China and New Zealand have lorries that run on batteries. They have battery chargers that take ten minutes. I know a gentleman in my area in Schull who has experienced that and worked with it. He keeps asking why we have to wait for the rest of Europe to do it before we might consider it in 15 or 20 years’ time. Where was the vision when the Green Party was in government?”
“I spoke to the Taoiseach about the Barryroe oil field on Leaders' Questions in 2022 when Eamon Ryan was wagging the tail. In 2026 he says Ursula von der Leyen is wagging the tail and he cannot reopen it. Parties in here say that we cannot have fossil fuels. They are all living in a different space age than I am. The fact is that, as we have seen in the last few weeks, if anything happens to the link from Moffat in Scotland, we would cease to operate in about a week without fuel. That is the bottom line. What I have always suggested is that we drill off Barryroe and any oil that we get from there would pay for renewables in this country. We could tax them to the hilt to pay for it - not the people but those who are drilling out there - and then put in our renewables. Where are our wind energy and solar panels?”
“Rather, they are devices designed to make engines burn cleaner and more efficiently. Whether they succeed or fail should be decided by a proper independent assessment, not by indifference or refusal to engage. People are sick of new ideas being waved away while carbon tax goes up without hesitation. If this is really about emissions, the focus should be on enabling cleaner fuels like HVO and seriously evaluating technologies that could reduce pollution. This morning, I read that the Chinese are making a plane that can be flown with water instead of fossil fuel. That tells us the world is moving on but Ireland is a laggard in terms of movement on renewables. Technologies could reduce pollution and stop the habit of using taxation as a substitute for solutions. Right now people see more tax, more lectures and very little practical help.”
“People who depend on diesel have to earn a living. It is about survival. Farmers, hauliers, fisherman and contractors are being punished for using the only fuel that will do the job while practical solutions are ignored or quietly parked. Hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, is a renewable diesel made from waste oil. It works in existing engines. It cuts emissions immediately and does not require people to scrap vehicles or machinery that have years of life left in them. That is common sense climate action but good luck trying to get HVO in Ireland. There is no domestic production, almost no availability and no urgency from the Government to make it accessible to the sectors that need it most. Separately, there are engine based technologies like hydrogen on demand systems. These are not fuels and do not replace diesel.”
“The same person to whom I referred employs 33 people and is worried about how they will pay their workers never mind pay for fuel. Fuel protests over the past few weeks should tell us that people all over the country are hurting. People cannot afford the never-ending taxing of everything. We need to do something about the cost of heating. There needs to be some type of package for the regular householder, the middle man and woman who cannot fill their oil tanks. People who used to get a fill or half a fill are now buying five gallon drums of heating oil. I ask the Government to seriously consider something for these people. The Government has spent years piling tax on to diesel, and telling us we have to meet our climate targets and that is climate action while doing very little to reduce harmful emissions.”
“I appreciate Minister of State is here but I thought the Minister for energy would be before us today because the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, is before us every day of the week on every issue. He will soon become Taoiseach of the country. He had a great go at us on RTÉ yesterday. That is part of the game. This is a very serious issue. I am very critical of the Green Party because it spent four or five years in government and did not move us properly towards renewables and we are now left in a crisis situation. People are in a desperate situation. I received a message last night from a fisherman who told me he was out at sea for 14 days, which cost him €31,000 in fuel. The Minister knows the crisis situation with regard to fisheries. The few days fishermen can go out costs them more.”
“We have to look at projects. Some of the projects that can wait have to be sidelined, such as, maybe, the greenways and double cycleways. I was with Noel Thomas in Galway recently. Everyone in every house I visited in the housing estate there was livid about these double cycleways as opposed to single cycleways. They asked where the money is coming from and how we are spending that type of money. It is wasted money as far as they were concerned.”
“There are reliefs for some of these but people are not sure how to get their hands on them or whether it will be another month or another six or eight weeks. Some of these people are in trouble right now and need those reliefs this very minute. The Minister of State could throw back at me the fact that I did not support the package, but the reason was because the Government has tailored the carbon tax and all the increases in the carbon tax into it. I will never support anything that will hurt the Irish people. The Government has a programme scheduled whereby we can kick the can down the road until October and then hit people with a double, triple or quadruple increase. That is not the way to go. It is not a sign of a caring Government. It is a greedy, grabbing Government that wants projects and that maybe wants specialised projects.”
“They fill the drums and put it into the boat and go out for the day and then go back and do the same thing. It is a continuous situation. I also then have those who are out there in the bigger trawlers throughout the country. I have correspondence from one of them. It states: Hi Michael, No word from our leaders. We have serious trouble with diesel. We have burned 2,500 in 24 hours. Our son was out on his last trip for 14 days. It cost him €31,000. It is not possible to keep going at that. We need help now, immediately, not in a month. We have 33 people working, all need money every week. This is the crisis in which people find themselves. They are paying bills left, right and centre.”
“They are all suffering. Someone who is in the plant hire business is out every day of the week with heavy machinery. That is something that needs to be looked at again. In relation to the fishing industry, we have two types of fishers. We have the inshore fishermen who are working most of the day. They have no choice but to use petrol. They have been speaking to me about how they have to use pump petrol. They do not get a rebate for pump petrol. They go up to the pump and fill the drums-----”
“Unfortunately, those who mentioned it were never listened to. It is a very serious issue. The Government should have moved on it. In relation to other issues, there are very small things like cancer clinics, although they are probably not small in some respects. A discussion took place on C103FM yesterday morning in relation to the success of the cancer clinic in west Cork, but the fuel crisis is hitting it hard. This is a voluntary service that takes cancer patients to and from parts of west Cork and other areas across the county into Cork city every day. Everything is organised to perfection, except for the costs. There needs to be a budget set aside for those people here too. I spoke to a plant hire person in the road building and building sector. They have all been exempted from this package that is being provided.”
“I listened to Deputy Gogarty with interest, and he is right. There were, unfortunately, a lot of self-appointed leaders involved in protests. However, there were very decent people involved in the protests I attended. They tried their best to weed out those, I call them thugs, who try to get involved. They get involved in everything that is going on. They think they can save the world from their homes, but that is not usually the case. There is a lot of stuff we are going back over here today. In relation to home heating oil, there was no decrease in the home heating oil and people are suffering at present. Use of the word "heating" is becoming widespread in the context of the fact that there are 300,000 people who cannot pay their electricity bills. That is a major issue that has been constantly spoken about in here.”