Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Promises, promises and more promises. The inflation taxation the Government has taken off everyone is now to be given out to the people and the Government will say it is giving them something off. It is waiving planning permission fees, which I welcome, for people who can build. We sat at a committee hearing yesterday, which the Minister of State attended, and heard about the failure of this Government and the previous one, and failures going back 38 years. I named a councillor who brought to the attention of the Dáil and the Government that a sewerage system was needed. That councillor is now retiring and the Government has not delivered it. The Government came out yesterday saying it will have an answer within a week and there will be investment in infrastructure outside Uisce Éireann. I told the Government two years ago Uisce Éireann was not capable of delivering it in the first place. What the Government announced means houses cannot be built in County Limerick because there are only two or three spots left with infrastructure that can be built on. That wipes out more than two thirds of County Limerick. People need to rent and need houses to be built. I would love for developers, the council or anyone else to build houses in County Limerick and to put roofs over people's heads but they cannot because of the failure of this Government and previous Governments to invest in the counties and rural areas. All the funding the Government delivered in the last two years has mainly gone to the city. Look at the local authorities - 90% of funding went to the city and 10% went to the county. The Minister of State is originally from County Limerick. Do not forget the people of County Limerick or the people in counties all around Ireland. The Government has let us down. The Independents are the only ones who have stood up and told the Government about the failure of infrastructure. If we have infrastructure, we will build houses but the Government does not give the funding so we cannot do it. Wake up and look after the people of the counties. They are real people too.

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