John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am talking about Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny and Waterford. There may have been an announcement in Waterford today but it has been a long time coming. We in the south east are not getting the priority we deserve and I am entitled to make that point.

The public want to see action on the issues that concern them, namely, excessive mortgage interest rates, soaring long-term mortgage arrears, the squeeze on the household budget, housing waiting lists and poor public services. The public want to see an improvement in those areas. They do not want to see spin in the Dáil over a three day period.

The Minister, Deputy Noonan, made great play yesterday about there being no reduction in social welfare payments and I accept there has been no reduction in the base payments but now there are water charges, property charges and there has been the withdrawal of free ESB unit and the telephone allowance. Old age pensioners will point out to me that those reductions account for approximately a €12 per week cut indirectly in social welfare. Therefore, it is not true to say there has been no reduction in the payments to social welfare recipients when there has been a substantial cut when account is taken of all the cutbacks and stealth taxes introduced during the past year.

The housing crisis is out of control. Very few houses are available for rent across the country. The rents are exorbitant and the landlords are increasing them. Homelessness is now a feature of rural constituencies that was not a feature of them in the past. The men's shelter and the women's refuge shelter in Wexford are full and they are not in a position to take in any more people, which leaves some people on the streets and homeless. The council has reached a crisis point in trying to deal with the problem.

Thousands of children with disabilities have been waiting years for supports and assessments. In many ways they have become the forgotten generation under this Government. Parents of people with disabilities are at their wits' end in trying to cope with no respite available. The respite grant was cut, they have been waiting years for assessments and it is practically impossible for these children to get wheelchairs and walking aids and also hospital care. Disabled grants from local authorities have been dramatically cut during the lifetime of this Government. People used to be able to avail of grants for specially adapted bathrooms or bedrooms but with council funding having been cut by 50% and 60% the council is not in a position to make such grants available.

Job opportunities for people with disabilities are practically nil. A special designated disability section should be established within the Departments of Education and Skills, Social Protection and Health. An overarching body should be established to deal once and for all with the problems faced by people with disabilities, first, when they are young and growing up and, second, when they have gone through second and third level education and are trying to find job opportunities, which are practically impossible to find. It is an area that needs to be seriously examined.

The Minister, Deputy Coveney, talked about the importance of agriculture and we all agree with that. He spoke about the good developments in agriculture during the past year under his watch but he forgot to mention the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, the new environmental scheme which is part of the rural development 2014-2020. A total of €1.4 billion has been allocated to GLAS over the lifetime of the programme, but the new programme falls dismally short of meeting its targets with only one third of eligible farms having their applications processed. The farmers are contacting all of us as public representatives pointing out the difficulties they are encountering in making an application and in getting to talk to people in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The current rate of processing is 2,000 applications per week. Based on that rate, the scheme will receive fewer than 24,000 applications, resulting in approximately 15,000 completed submissions, which is way below the number the Minister spoke about as he encouraged farmers to apply. It will certainly be very difficult to reach the target by the 22 May deadline. He should seriously consider extending that deadline as a matter of urgency.

The Minister did not mention that under the rural development programme there were serious cutbacks in the Leader programmes around the country with major reductions in the amount of grant available. In some cases there has been a reduction of 40%. The Leader companies across the country are at their wits' end in trying to make sure that they will have a viable scheme in the future. The Minister did not mention that.

With the abolition of milk quotas, severe problems will be faced by farmers who have to pay the super-levy. The Minister said that with the involvement of the IFA the payment may be spread over a three year period. When the quotas have been abolished I cannot understand why a farmer would have to carry over a super-levy for last year. The EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Hogan, is in situ and surely the Minister, together with the Commissioner and other like-minded countries that have a super-levy in place, should be in a position to deal with this to ensure a reasonable solution is found because otherwise farmers will have to pay large amounts in respect of the super-levy over the course of the next three years. That will create a major burden on their finances and on the way they will be able to contribute and extend their farming operations. The Minister should seriously examine the prospect of seeking a write-off of the super-levy for 2014 for our farmers based on the fact that the quota has been abolished.Surely the Minister should be able to engage in serious negotiations with the EU Commissioner, Mr. Hogan, on that issue.

There has been a serious reduction in the number of gardaí, with the number down by 1,500 in the past four years. We have had 11 retirements in the Enniscorthy area where I live and no replacements to date. We had eight gardaí deployed in the drugs unit. One garda is now working in drugs unit and one can imagine the work that garda has to do with the level of drug dealings in the south east and the amount of drugs coming into the country through Rosslare. The customs officials in Rosslare have been very successful in securing cases again drug peddlers and drug movers. The time has come to seriously rebuild the number of gardaí around the country. We have the lowest number of gardaí per head of population in Wexford. It is time that the Minister for Justice and Equality, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, seriously examine that and ensure that we have an adequate number of gardaí to protect our citizens. With the Garda stations closed in rural areas it is important that we have adequate numbers of gardaí in our towns and cities to protect the ordinary citizens of our county and our country.

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