Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I concur with the sentiments expressed by the previous speaker regarding a horrific murder. Nobody carrying out his or her lawful work should be subjected to such attacks. It is a tragedy.

I welcome the publication of the Government's capital expenditure programme but I am disappointed about what it contains. When I sat on the benches opposite I had to listen to the current Chief Whip, Deputy Kehoe, and his colleagues as they demanded more and more. He interrupted Deputy Wallace today to speak about projects in New Ross. We all have projects in our own areas. The cuts in capital spending in education and agriculture alone will do enormous long-term damage to this country.

I met a delegation from the IFA earlier today. Agricultural exports have increased from €7 billion three years ago to almost €9 billion today. The cuts proposed by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, will set the sector back at least ten years. Farmers helped us out our last two recessions and they can help us again this time. They are willing to take small cuts but they will not tolerate a slash and burn approach to grant schemes.

The Government is blaming its predecessor for the mess in which it found itself but it is hoping that it can continue to cut for the next two years and still be seen as the good guy in three years' time. That is a false hope. I lived through the same attitude among Ministers in the last Government. The people cannot take any more. Ordinary people cannot live with these cuts. It does not appear to bother the Government that it is breaking every promise it ever made.

I can understand the reason for scrapping certain major infrastructural projects given the costs involved but smaller projects could still proceed. In County Tipperary, we accept we will not get an upgrade of the N24 to motorway status between Pallasgreen and Carrick-on-Suir but Tipperary town is jammed with traffic and needs a 3 km bypass. The bypass that was constructed around Cashel 12 years ago became part of the N8. That was a case of forward thinking. We can achieve unprecedented value for money because 450,000 unemployed people are ready, able and willing to do the work and the projects are ready for tender. If we do not reconsider the cuts to smaller projects we will close down the country.

Across County Tipperary, from Tipperary town to Carrick-on-Suir, the talk is about closures. Government backbenchers came out of their most recent parliamentary party meeting announcing that 40 hospitals would be closed. They are scaremongering. I realise that some of these hospitals will be closed but they should not frighten the daylights out the elderly people who have done so much to build up this country. If we added up all the cuts the Government has leaked over the past several weeks, it would amount to nearly €3 billion. The Government wants a soft landing on 7 December but it is stifling investment and frightening people who are entitled to nursing home care and hospital places. These are people who paid their taxes. The Government has lost the plot and is spinning like a top. It has more spin doctors than previous Governments.

Even though the rural public transport scheme operates on a paltry budget of €10.8 million, it is a fabulous system. It depends on voluntary groups such as the Carlow-Kilkenny-South Tipperary Ring a Link, members of which I will meet this evening in Kilkenny. The Ring a Link is operated by two staff and drivers employed on a community employment scheme. It offers a wonderful service to people in rural areas.

Next week we will be debating a Bill which discriminates against rural dwellers who have bought their sites, received planning permission and built their houses. They will face penal, if not criminal, taxes. Inspectors will crawl around back gardens like the peep of day boys to inspect what these people have worked hard to build. The county councils will impose registration fees even though they should be able to compile a register of every septic tank in their areas from their planning records. They have planning files stretching back God knows how many years, unless they have been burnt or shredded. It is further bureaucracy from the Government and the Civil Service. The people cannot and will not take any more of this. Why should rural dwellers be penalised to the tune of €10,000 or €15,000 when we have spent hundreds of millions of euro on water and sewerage schemes in our towns? Why do we have a two-tier system in which rural dwellers are criminalised and required to pay for appeals? Ratepayers will also have to pay if they want to appeal their rate bills. As a representative of the people, I do not accept this imposition.

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