Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

That is rip-off Ireland, and it is time we dealt with it.

Small businesses cannot carry local authorities any longer, paying water charges, refuse charges, rates and benchmarking for local authority workers. The Minister and the Government should write to every county manager drawing up estimates to say that there should be no increases in rates.

In the town I come from, Westport, the taxpayers of Ireland and Europe helped to buy much of the land for Irish Rail and helped to set up the rail service. What did Irish Rail do with the land around the town? It started to charge for parking on ground the taxpayer worked hard for and provided funding for. Irish Rail is ripping off the consumer again.

Let us have fair play. Let us protect and help the consumer. I want Irish business to do well and make a fair profit but I want them to stop continually ripping us off. They have been at it for the past 20 years and it is time for some competition in the market. The Minister should bring in Marks & Spencer and Tesco and tell them to charge the same as they are charging in Britain. If they do not like dealing in this country, they can go because they are the ones that put many small businesses out of business in this country. They are still at it and the Government has made it easy for them in regard to planning laws.

See this speech in context