Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ferris and Sinn Féin for sharing time with me.

Last year, at the opening of a care facility for helping people with special needs in Kenmare, County Kerry, when the Taoiseach met Donal Harrington, he put his hands around his back and told him not to worry as the Government would look after him and his wife. Donal is the full-time carer for his daughter, Georgia, who has special needs. They live in Hawthorn Woods, Kenmare and are a respectable family doing their best. Donal, like myself and others, took the Taoiseach at this word then. However, it turned out to be broken promise. The Taoiseach and the Government have taken a chunk of the respite care grant from the likes of Donal. It is a desperately needed grant. Every penny is accounted for and it is not a slush fund.

Our young people who are living in houses they cannot afford were promised they would be helped by Fine Gael and Labour if they were elected to government. Now, their children's allowance has been cut and a property tax will be imposed on them by a Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government who did not even have the courtesy to come into the Dáil last week for the budget. It is the first time in the history of the State that a property tax will be introduced and the Minister responsible did not see fit to stay in Ireland but had business to attend to in other parts of the world.

Our elderly people who built this country, and for whom we all have great respect, were promised they too would be taken care of. What have they got? They have to pay the property tax and endure cuts to their household packages. More broken promises. Promises made and promises broken.

The only thing our students did not get during the last election was a pledge written in blood. The Minister in question knew he would be Minister after the election but went ahead and signed a pledge declaring no cuts to student grants or an increase in fees if in power. The students bought it then. If I were a student, I would have bought it too. We all took it hook, line and sinker but Labour and Fine Gael will not catch them again. Promises made and promises broken.

Our farmers believed they would be taken care of by the Government. It must be remembered these are the people who have to put up with the worst type of weather with all types of problems facing them but they do not have the comfort of any agreement taking care of their income. They have been cut and cut again and now must suffer another €80 million to be cut from agriculture funding.

Rural Garda stations are being closed by a Minister for Justice and Equality whose breathtaking arrogance both inside and outside this Chamber is incredible – if one passed him on the corridor, one would note he is oozing arrogance. He sold out rural Ireland by closing down a further 100 Garda stations when it will not save one cent. I have proof that it will actually cost more money to keep Garda stations closed rather than it would to keep them open.

At this stage, the public will remember for a long time the lies, the misleading and mistruths done by Fine Gael and Labour. Deputy Ferris and I know how Government party Members go to community meetings declaring about how they are all about standing with the people when in fact they will do the divil and all for the people. When they come up to Dublin, they forget all about it. They are delivering nothing at home only pain, hardship and misfortune. They are trying to give the impression they are doing something for the people when they are not. When they come up here it is a different story because we know it as we see it at first hand.

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