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

The Minister was invited to Kerry last week by Local Link Kerry. I was invited to attend as well. The Minister did not invite me. When I looked for details about how the Minister was travelling and what travel arrangements had been made I was told to contact the office of Deputy Brendan Griffin. I was also stalled there. I received no information from him. At the start of this debate Deputy Griffin was posing hard questions, but somebody made him a Minister of State and he is now lining up behind the Minister. It is very unfair that these young people are going to be criminalised and that their cars are going to be towed away and that they will be left at the side of the road. It will criminalise parents, good hard-working people, but the Minister does not understand. I ask him to spend three or four weeks in Kerry, because that is what it would take. The Fine Gael Deputies supporting the Minister understand the situation but do not mind because they want the Minister to continue supporting their party. It appears to me that many Sinn Féin Deputies are supporting the Minister on this matter. They should also know what rural Ireland is about and how people have to try to manage and improvise, and they should know the difficulties that people in rural places go through to travel from their homes and return to their homes.

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