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

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. I must first declare an interest. I have been a ratepayer since I was 20 years of age. I believe I am perfectly equipped to talk about rates considering I have been paying them for a long time. I represent the ratepayers of the county of Kerry, who have an awful lot to say about the little they get back for the amount they pay in rates and the increases they have seen over the years. It is a simple fact that these people are creating the employment that is keeping our small villages, towns and larger towns going. We then have the bigger ratepayers, for instance, the hoteliers with the big hotels but just because they are bigger does not mean they are having an easy time; they certainly are not. In terms of the tax the Government has put on them recently, I was bitterly disappointed to see the increase in the VAT rate for the hotel and hospitality sector. It is true, as Deputy Michael Collins said, that this is having a negative effect on their businesses. Those people were already operating on a tight shoestring.

We must look at their wage bills and their insurance bills which are spiralling out of control. I want to highlight again how unfair the massive increase that people who own nightclubs, dance halls, restaurants, public houses and shops have to pay for their public liability insurance. It is because of predominantly bogus claims that are allowed to continue in this State, which we have debated here before. We have seen Ministers sitting idly by and silenced. It was as though they could see no evil or hear no evil because they have said nothing about the increase from 9% to 13.5%. There was no need in the world for that increase. It was wrong and I was so bitterly disappointed that it was allowed. It will have a more adverse effect on County Kerry than perhaps any other county in the country.

These businesses are struggling already, considering they are after coming out of one of the worst recessions ever, but they kept their doors open and continued to put investment in. When I think of the hoteliers in County Kerry, whether it is small restaurants, bigger hotels or medium-sized hotels, many of them predominantly family-run - they are the rate payers. They are collecting the taxes that keep this Government ticking but they are forgotten about. They were sold down the river by this Government when it hiked up the VAT without giving them a second thought.

I also lend my support to the people who operate health food shops. The Taoiseach came out the other day with the nonsensical statement that he was going to improve his carbon footprint by stopping eating meat. For God's sake, a child in the cradle would not come out with such a statement, never mind anyone else. It was an embarrassment for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Tánaiste who I know would have more sense than to come out with such a silly statement. It really upset our farmers. This was an attack on rural Ireland and on every farmer who has cattle in sheds which they are trying to fatten and get ready for the factory or to sell in order to make a very small few pounds.

On the one hand we had the Taoiseach coming out with that statement and, at the same time, if we want to talk about healthier living and healthier foods, we have people who operate great health food shops all over the country. In the county I represent, we have many health food shops. We have the great Dan Horan of Horan's Health Stores who has a number of shops throughout Kerry and even in Limerick, and we have other private individuals who operate other shops with very hard-working staff. What have they seen happen? There has been a massive tax increase from 0% to 23%. How in the name of God could anybody justify this? It is ironic that at a time when people are encouraged to eat healthier foods and to lead healthier lifestyles, the Government comes along and taxes them out of existence. That was an awful and crazy initiative. I raised it here last December with the Taoiseach and he said he knew nothing about it at the time and that it would not happen at all. Now it is going to happen. How can the Minister of State tell these small shopkeepers, who are our rate collectors and who collect tax for the Government, that the Government will increase their tax from 0% to 23%? That is outrageous.

In many of our small villages we have seen the sad and absolutely heartbreaking decline of our rural pubs. The fabric of our society is under attack from the Minister of State and his colleagues who supported him when Fianna Fáil was sitting on its hands sound asleep allowing this to happen. As was pointed out here already today, 11 of the Fianna Fáil Members voted for the draconian measures which have been such an attack on rural Ireland. We are telling these publicans that people are being stopped from going to the pubs. At the same time the Government is telling them it will take their tax from whatever they sell, if they sell anything and it will also continue to take their rates. It is 100% true to say that there should be a ban on collecting rates from public houses that are below a certain threshold of turnover because they cannot pay it. They cannot pay it because they are making no money.

I am in public houses on a continuous basis, which I am very glad to be able to do. I meet constituents in pubs and I started it many years ago along with my late father, Jackie Healy-Rae. It was such an enjoyment to go to public houses that were full and vibrant. They were the cornerstone of our communities. Many of those public houses where we used to pull out in front of when the lights were on, the doors were open and the fire was lit in the corner are now unfortunately closed thanks to this Government and other governments. The Government succeeded in shutting them down. The sad fact is that many more of them will shut down and many more of our small shops will shut down. What is this Government doing for them? Absolutely nothing, but it is nailing them to the cross every way that it can. That is what it did here a number of weeks ago when it introduced the road traffic legislation attacking our rural pubs. The Government is doing absolutely nothing to help them. They created employment, whether it was for themselves, for a neighbour or a family member and now they are shut or as good as shut.

I see it getting worse and worse and it was pathetic to hear a Member of this House today on our local radio station, Radio Kerry, trying to defend what he had done by sitting on his hands and allowing our publicans in Kerry to be attacked in such a way. It was actually sad to hear him going on the radio because the way I would describe it was that he was trying to defend the indefensible. If one is elected to represent one's people in one's county, one is elected to represent all of the people and the first people who must be helped are those who create employment. Whether they are the small shopkeepers, the small publicans, those in the post offices or those in hotels, they are the people who are collecting tax and who we want to keep in business. Unfortunately they are getting nothing from this Government.

I ask the Minister of State to take seriously the suggestion of holding off on certain publicans because of the fact that their turnover has decreased so much. I know that our local authority, Kerry County Council, is excellent and has always been very willing to listen to individual cases where businesses are struggling but, unfortunately, so many of them are struggling at present that it will find it hard to deal with the amount of them. This is so wrong at this critical time. The Government seems to have absolutely no regard whatsoever for them. The more time goes by, the more the point will have been proven.

Over Christmas time, it was shocking to see how little business was being conducted in rural pubs. Perhaps the Minister of State did not see it and maybe people in this city did not see it but I know that we certainly saw it in north Kerry, south Kerry, west Kerry and east Kerry. Every small village has been desperately affected and when the people are not going out socialising it has a knock-on effect. The taxi drivers do not have the business and the food outlets and fast food outlets do not have the business. It has a knock-on effect if people are not allowed to go out, socialise and enjoy themselves. Keeping people at home is detrimental to a local community. We can all remember when more people were out socialising at night and at the weekends in particular and it brought life and money to localities. We do not have that now thanks to this Government and its policies of higher taxes, crippling rules and regulations and continuously going after the same people. It is the easy touch.

I ask the Minister of State to explain how any young person today could seriously consider starting up a small business? Whether it would be buying, leasing or taking over a pub or buying, leasing or trying to take on a small shop, how could they do it? The first day they would put up a sign and start, the whole lot would be down on top of them. Revenue, the HSE, taxes and rates would be down on top of them and would go through them like a dose of salts until they would be left on the side of the road with nothing. There is no encouragement whatsoever. This Government has proven itself to be anti-rural beyond belief and anti-small business beyond belief but the only thing about it is that the people have a good memory and they will remember the Government for it.

See this speech in context