Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also wish to support this Bill. I wish the Minister and the Irish Rugby Football Union, IRFU, the very best in their bid to host the Rugby World Cup in 2023. This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the venues and the country all around the world, and the advertising of Ireland in this way will pay for the costs incurred and the staging of the event.

It has been indicated that Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney is to be one of the venues. I am confident that Killarney, Kenmare, Castleisland, Killorglin and Tralee and many other hostelries around the Ring of Kerry will cater and provide accommodation second to none to the teams, visitors and followers.

I have every confidence in the Fitzgerald Stadium committee. Tim Murphy, our new and very able chairman, and members of the county board will have the stadium gleaming and ready for whatever bustle and pressure comes with staging the games. Where else in the world is their a venue situated in such a beautiful setting surrounded by the three beautiful lakes and under the shadow of the MacGillycuddy's Reeks?

However, work has to be done in the meantime and whatever about the snails and the begrudgers, the Macroom-Ballyvourney bypass will have to be completed in time to ensure that these big sportsmen will not be parked in their cars and buses in Macroom when they should be togged out in Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. It is up to this Government to provide the funding for this project immediately and to ensure that after all the waiting, the infrastructure - by that I mean a proper road from Cork to Killarney - will be place for 2023.

I wish the IRFU and the Minister all the very best. We hope that we will be successful in November in ensuring that this massive opportunity comes to Ireland. We have followers of rugby around Castleisland and Currow. We had great men there who represented Munster and Ireland down the years and they had supporters and followers. They deserve that the Rugby World Cup comes to this country.

I wish to raise another matter that is not related to rugby. A group of farmers are waiting in Agriculture House to be met by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed. They are seeking compensation for the loss of their crops last year. I call on the Minister to meet them. The Minister, Deputy Ross, is also a member of the Government. Those men will stay there until the Minister, Deputy Creed, meets them. This is going on for too long. I am sorry, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, but those men should be at home doing their work this evening, but they are up in Agriculture House waiting to get what is rightfully due to them.

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