Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

He destroyed rural Ireland. He destroyed town councils, urban councils and borough councils and bulldozed our two communities together in Tipperary by merging two constituencies into one. Tipperary was divided by the British because they could not rule us and we were unruly. We are a proud people and are not looking for anything with a béal bocht but we want to be allowed to breathe. The Government destroyed the Leader programme - a fine model which was set up all over Europe. It was the envy of Europe and a model everyone wanted to use but the Minister's colleague, the former Taoiseach, told me there was trouble in the Leader programme in Mayo. There may have been one or two bits of trouble but not with the vast majority of programmes. They were all volunteers, as Deputy Collins said. I was an initiator of the rural transport scheme in Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary and I never took a cent for going to meetings, nor did any other board member. They are still doing it and I salute them and the other volunteers who are running this country.

The Government destroyed the Leader programme and not a cent was spent on it because the county councils wanted it. They are now seen as the regulatory authority but they should never have got Leader because Leader was a bottom-up scheme. The people le chéile, the duine óg and the duine aosta everywhere, worked hard. They had the ideas, the passion and the vision and did not want to be stifled by the county council taking over the Leader programme, but nothing is happening now. I often stood in fields and villages and 7.30 a.m or 10.30 p.m. with Leader officials but one would be a long time waiting to get a council official in a field or an office, even at 8 o'clock in the morning or 4.30 p.m. The Government hijacked it and banjaxed the programme. Now the wheels have fallen off the wagon and nothing is happening in Leader.

There is a flight of GPs, such as Deputy Harty, and a problematic age profile but the Government is not looking. There is a 40-year old GP contract but the Government will not renegotiate it, instead expecting people to work in Dickensian buildings and with little or no support. I salute the GPs. We opposed the scheme for free GP services for children aged under six in Tipperary because we predicted it would cause bedlam and there has been a 40% increase in people going to the GP. It is not because they are really sick but because they can get the service for free and that is silly. Nothing is free.

They community air ambulance was a fabulous community group which wanted to help bring people to hospital, to prevent cases such as that of the poor unfortunate man from Waterford who was being driven to hospital but died in an ambulance in Dungarvan on the way to Cork. We have a community air ambulance scheme but the HSE does not want it as it is an irritant. The Government forced through the children's hospital in Dublin and it was a monumental scandal to build a hospital in that location when there was a magnificent site on the M50 which would have allowed people from all over the country to have access. The decision will haunt us all for the rest of our lives.

The Government is trying to stop people supporting themselves. They might not see it but the hands of bureaucracy are like the handlebars of a bike - one needs a hammer and a chisel to get them off. I am tired of saying that. I have no disrespect for the officials who are here and I thank them for being patient with us as we rush this stuff through before we go out, but the permanent government has to be dealt with.

The Taoiseach promised that, but it has not happened and it must happen.

The Government has a rural action plan in respect of which 4,000 projects have been submitted by communities, only 40 of which will be allowed to proceed. The former Taoiseach announced this in Glenamaddy or Longford somewhere. He talked about this road and that road. I said it was like the four roads of Glenamaddy with Big Tom but we had no guitar and no song because we had no money. People have filled out these application forms and gone through the first selection process, the expression of interest process and reams and reams and there is nothing to give them. The money the Government allocated for the 4,000 projects would not buy a stamp. These people want to do it. The Tidy Towns groups all applied, delivering local development companies into small villages, all accountable to Big Brother and the men watching them. We spent two hours one night at a Ring a Link rural transport meeting trying to account for a €20 underspend. That is with the arduous rules and regulations regarding accountability, and rightly so. There is no fraud or misappropriation of funds going on there but there may be with the big boys, the banks, even the charities - the whole lot of it. I saw one of our retired bankers today in the paper. He is now terrorising the people in a different country, in Africa, laughing all the way to the bank. We see this every day of the week. The people who want to do the work will not be left to do it. The Government is like the dog in the manger. They will do the work but the Government will not let them do it. The Minister knows this well and I do not want to be critical of him.

I do not even want to go near broadband because I am a very good friend and colleague of the Minister, Deputy Naughten. However, I believe he is sadly being deluded and codded because broadband has got worse. We hear of so many houses a minute getting fibre broadband. I do not know how many minutes there are in a year but that is a lot of houses. I have been sick of announcements here since the previous Fianna Fáil Government, of which I was a member, then the Labour-Fine Gael coalition and now this Government. Announcements and timelines are given. I do not know why the Ministers come in here and read them out because they know they are all dubious and con jobs. We are told Eir and some other company are getting the work. Let the community people do it. They will do it honestly, quickly and, as I said, fairly. It is not fair that people have no broadband, whether it be a student doing his CAO or a farmer trying to claim his single farm payment.

Regarding the mobile phone service, when I came to the Dáil ten years ago I could get on the phone in my village and stay on it the whole time until I got up to the Dáil. Now I cannot. It has got worse and worse but we are being peddled the story that everything is so good and so rosy.

As I said, the Tidy Towns groups do work and have initiatives. If the Minister gets the reins, the money and the portfolio, I know he will do the work. However, I have a funny feeling that perhaps someone did not want him to get into the Cabinet. I wish him well on his appointment as a full member of the Cabinet but he will be like an empty vessel, unfortunately. I do not say that disparagingly to him because I respect his enthusiasm and work rate, but it will not happen for rural Ireland. Perhaps he will change things with the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, beside him, and I hope the Ministers from the Independent Alliance will support him. However, as I said about the situation regarding the voluntary housing associations, we have a huge housing crisis that is increasing and we are talking about reports and quarterly reports. I am sick and tired of it. Tipperary County Council did not build a house last year in the middle of a crisis with 3,000 people approved and about another 8,000 applying. What has gone wrong? Big Brother is stifling us all, herding us all into cities and bigger cities.

I heard a constituency colleague of the Acting Chairman's, Deputy Ó Cuív, talking about Galway this morning. There is traffic chaos given the facilities and everything else going to Galway. I met the head of IDA Ireland in Washington, the night before St. Patrick's Day this year. He told me that IDA Ireland cannot get a company to go anywhere in Ireland now except Dublin. It is hard enough to get companies to come to Ireland at all. It is policy after policy for the permanent governments and then we had IDA Ireland and the other group that was set up all over the country, ConnectIreland, which is doing great work again. It started with a voluntary seed - a small acorn into an oak tree grows - and it was doing great work. IDA Ireland got corporatism and now the scheme it delivered is gone. It was given an old patch. IDA Ireland said it was doing this work as it was its area, but now the scheme is gone. It brought jobs to Tipperary, Galway, west Cork, Kerry and everywhere else and had more coming. We raised this here with the Minister and in the deputation.

I know of a company called SNC-Lavalin Group that took over a fabulous company in Clonmel called MF Kent. This happened with other companies in Tipperary. They get taken over. There is no one watching it, whether the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission or anyone else. They are letting these multibillion-dollar companies come in and hijack and banjax things and treat workers appallingly in Clonmel. I will not stray into it but this is happening again with another multibillion-dollar company taking over another company, and there were only 40 jobs left in Clonmel. Kentz, formerly MF Kent, employed 15,000 people and I salute Frank Kent for setting it up. It had world recognition and these cowboy outfits have now taken it over. They have been run out of several countries. I could read the details of this into the record but I will not. They are involved in huge lawsuits and have been banned from government contracts and we let them come in here. They took over JS Atkins for £2.1 billion only two weeks ago and they are destroying our workers here. They have no respect for the workers in Clonmel who have given the service.

This has happened across the board. We talk about our big conglomerates and the Kerry Groups and Glanbias and so on. All is not so healthy there. Kerry Group was not half anxious to come up when it got the invitation and leave where it was in Kerry, where it started. All is not wonderful in the capital or in these big companies. As I said, we should support the local small business man and the people who want to build their own houses.

The Government should give some substance and support to the GPs who are the first port of call. We have trolley crisis after trolley crisis. If the GPs are gone, the trolley crises are ten times worse. One need not be a rocket scientist to guess this one, but I do not know what has gone on with the permanent government and the Ministers and taoisigh who are afraid to tackle it. It must be tackled. The permanent government must become the public servants they are being paid to be, allow the public to get the services and not treat people like peasants, giving them crumbs from the table. We want justice in rural Ireland, we want fairness, we are not the béal bocht, we want the respect we deserve and we want to be able to live and thrive. The communities, GAA clubs, soccer clubs, all the other different clubs and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann will all make the communities viable.

We are destroying our pubs with the attack on them by the new law. I know many in Cabinet are against it. I got a text tonight saying they are all being whipped into vote for it. All the legislation that is passed, including the Minister, Deputy Ross's, legislation, which he is passionate about, and I respect him for that, must be rural-proofed because we are stifling and killing-----

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