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

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this very important debate and will begin by speaking about health. We have five Ministers and Ministers of State in the Department of Health and we have a Government but we do not have a health service that is fair to sick and vulnerable people who need care. As was mentioned already, mental health services and treatment for people with depression and other mental health problems are practically non-existent in Kerry. If such people are unwell on a Friday evening, all they can do is ring SouthDoc or go to the accident and emergency department in Tralee General Hospital, which is already overcrowded. Proper assistance is not being given to people who present with mental health problems and so many are committing suicide. It is such a shame because a life is a life and these people are not getting the attention they deserve. What the Government is proposing with regard to congregated settings is not right because one size does not fit all. We have been asking that the policy in that regard be reviewed and an assessment be done on those who have been moved out from congregated settings to see how they are doing. We have asked for a report on that but nothing has been forthcoming.

On housing, I have said many times that if the Government does not have the money it claims to have it should just come out and say so. I believe that the Government does not have the funding it claims to have for housing. Ten rural cottages will be built in Kerry between 2016 and 2021. People are providing their own sites but there are 37 more people looking for rural cottages. Why does the Government not just give them the money? The Government said three years ago that it was giving €62.5 million to Kerry for housing but that money has not been spent.

IBEC has said, with regard to roads and infrastructure, that Ireland has the lowest amount of capital projects in Europe. I know of one project that must be progressed but which only received €25,000 this year, namely the Killarney bypass. The town is choked with traffic.

Approximately 18,600 people travel on the existing bypass every day, which is not fit for purpose. The Government is talking about the climate change effort. It is going to spend money. It is going to tax farmers and people on the road with more carbon tax, even though they are paying enough for petrol and diesel at the pumps at present. It is blaming people who cut turf for climate change. The rumour now is that the Government is going to sacrifice farmers and get them to reduce cow numbers, even though we know they are only barely existing and have to increase their numbers to survive economically and stay on their farms.

We cannot believe what the Government is coming back with from Europe to deal with the challenges of Brexit. Before Christmas, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste said they had it all sorted and there was going to be a soft border. Now we do not know. There are different viewpoints from across the water every day. I hope the Government asks the UK to have another referendum. That is what should happen. I was the first person to ask for that when the UK decided in the initial referendum to leave the EU.

Project 2040 does not give much hope to County Kerry. It is hardly mentioned in the plan at all. The only way in which it will have an effect is that people looking to build one-off houses for themselves will be told they can get planning permission if it does not detract from an urban town or city.

On education, we had a group representing students here today and they that college students are having fierce difficulty sourcing accommodation. They asked for purpose-built accommodation to be provided for students in the cities where colleges are based. Primary schools are under fierce pressure to continue. It is not right that parents and teachers have to raise funds to keep schools going. It is no different from what happened years ago when each child had to bring a sod of turf to school to keep the fire going.

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