Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)

I want to take the Minister up on the offer of his officials meeting with representatives from Dingle as soon as possible to discuss their submission. At a time when they are struggling to manage their finances, we cannot impose increases. Their fuel bill is now double what it was a couple of years ago. How can they manage to pay more? They cannot do it. I will rely on the Minister as he is one of the few people in the House who would have sailed a boat into Dingle harbour on many occasions. He knows where he is talking about and I appreciate that. I hope common sense will apply and a special consideration will be made.

On the issue of the yachts, this problem could lead to a dangerous situation. People who might have pulled into Dingle harbour may now decide to stop away from the pier and use small pontoons to come in rather than come into the safety of the harbour. This could be dangerous. It should be remembered that it is better to get a small amount of money from people than to get no money or to stop them coming in altogether. That would rob our town of business. Also, further taxes would be accrued were people to spend money in the town. Dingle has worked very hard to get to where it is today. I do not want the Government to do anything that would pull Dingle down, cost jobs and money and take people out of viable valuable work and put them on the dole queues. We do not want that.

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