Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not as bad. I use the phone for phone calls and not for anything else. I accept it is modern technology and people get to see what is happening in other parts of the world. When we were young we were anxious to hear what our father, grandfather and grandmother were saying but I do not think that is the case with young people today. They have no interest whatsoever. We were so curious that we found ourselves being told to go into the corner for a while. We were into everything. We wanted to know what older people were saying. To some extent I believe we are losing that in today's world. Our culture is our identity and people such as Frank Lewis and others need financial support as well as support from the heritage officers.

I agree that service should be expanded within the local authorities and we should have more people employed. Our heritage officer, T.J. O'Mahony, is a great person and he is doing very well in Kerry. However, he is limited in what he can do because he is only one man and he needs help.

Mr. Starrett spoke about how houses can be improved so people can live in them. While I support him in that, in other places there is a need for a radon barrier and it is not possible financially to retain the building, particularly where it is not feasible for a person to live in it without a such a barrier being put in place. We now know that radon causes health problems, including cancer. One place that springs to mind in this regard is Castleisland, where we have lost three people in one family in a short period as a result of the effects of radon. Things like that need to be overcome. I do not know if the walls can be left standing but people tell us it is often not possible to deal with it properly. Perhaps people could be encouraged to build the same type of building again in a modern way. However, it is by talking about these things that we see what can be done to overcome the problems, and they are problems. Sometimes we cannot understand why a house is left standing with no one using it, when it might not look too bad and might look as if it could be reused, but there are physical problems that need to be dealt with. We need to work together to overcome these issues. I welcome our guests and thank them for their contributions.