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

I acknowledge that it has been a difficult week for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Michael Creed. His family has had a tough time in the past week and it is difficult for him to be here so I pay my respects to him.

The Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, is 100% committed to the retention of the 9% VAT rate and he knows as well as I the importance it has to our County Kerry. I am grateful that it is being retained and I know he had his shoulder to the wheel all the time on the issue. The big fear we have now is for the future so I ask him to work in a practical and workmanlike way to ensure it is retained. I am worried and there should be no uncertainty about it. It means a lot to us in Kerry and in Ireland generally.

I acknowledge that the Government recognises how important the Irish language is, including the Gaeltachtaí and our mná tí. They were neglected in the past but there is a recognition of them in this budget and I positively welcome that. I want more to be done for the language because it is like an industry in itself. West of Dingle, in Ballinskelligs or in south Kerry, our Gaeltacht areas are very important and this should be recognised in the future.

People are getting increases in pay but they are being diluted by increases in car insurance, house insurance and VHI etc. I welcome the increases but I would like more to be done.

I recognise that additional people are being hired in An Garda Síochána and the Garda Reserve and I welcome it. Our gardaí get a lot of negative press and some people, including in this House, seem just to want to attack and condemn them but we rely on them for keeping law and order. We should compliment An Garda Síochána at every level. Things have happened that might not be right but if we keep looking backwards we will fall on what is in front of us. We must move on.

I was contacted today by many people from the disability sector who, I am sad to say, are not happy. They say not enough is being done for them and over the coming months I would like everything that can possibly be done for disabled people to be done, because they have a lot to put up with. They have a lot of additional expense and problems that able-bodied people do not have. In Kerry, I acknowledge the great work being done by the housing department in administering disability grants, be they for bathrooms, additional downstairs bedrooms, grants for mobility aids or all the various services the county council provides. I acknowledge the great work of the people who work there.

I remind the Dáil that the first time I opened my mouth in the House it was to argue with the then Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, that nothing was being done for self-employed people.

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I do not care if they are a shopkeeper, a postman, a digger driver, a tractor driver or a farmer. They are the people creating their own jobs. They may have an extra bit of work from time to time when they might hire a neighbour or another person and they create a little bit of work. If that self-employed person gets a little bit more successful, then all the better. He or she could then hire two, three, four, five or 20 people. These self-employed persons are the ones we should be supporting. If something goes wrong for them, if they are not able to hire anymore and if they do not have work anymore, we should support them because they are, in essence, the backbone of Ireland. They are the important people to me. The big multinationals come in and I am delighted they are here. I am proud that Liebherr is in Killarney and I am proud of all the multinationals that come in. I believe, however, that the real people who are the employers of Ireland are those who will create one job for themselves first and then another and another. They are what it is all about. I respectfully ask the Government to look after the self-employed people and always to remember them.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, was speaking earlier about electric cars. Everyone knows my association with the Minister as we are very good friends but I would rather see any penny spent by this Government on electric cars spent on anything else, be it in the disability sector or any other sector. Electric cars are a load of rubbish. We spent so long telling people to move from petrol to diesel and then we all did that. Every one of us is doing what we were told to do. Now we are being told this. My brother Danny and I would not get much business done while trying to get electricity between here and Kilgarvan to top up our electric cars. It is a load of rubbish. The Minister, Deputy Creed, would be the same, the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, would be worse off as he is a bit further and the Minister, Deputy Ring, would be as bad again. It is a load of rubbish. Stick with diesel and we will keep motoring away. I would ask that for God's sake something else could be done with the €10 million that is proposed to be pumped into electric cars. I ask that the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, throw it into the post office network or do something with it. Do not waste the funding on electric cars. It is a load of rubbish.

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