Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am just saying that after 25 or 30 days when he came in with a programme for Government, he slapped it down in front of us and said, "Read that. You have three hours to come up with a decision. Back us or else." Unfortunately, some people did back them, but it will prove to be expensive because it is not possible to write a blank cheque for anyone. However, that is what happened.

People want houses, but the Government will not allow the people who want to build for themselves to do so because of its 2040 plan. They cannot build houses in the countryside. There are at least ten couples in my small area in south Tipperary who could build their own house and received planning permission with great difficulty, but they cannot receive a mortgage. The Government will not let people who want to do it for themselves to do so and if they cannot help themselves, the Government will not help them. It could not be written in a fiction film. It cannot be done for the want of trying. Is this supposed to represent value for money for the taxpayer?

I have mentioned health and housing, but let us look at another Vote, that for the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC. Out of a total budget of €6.662 million, €5.6 million went on salaries - pay the lads and promote them also - wages and expenses, while another €500,000 was spent on office expenses, probably on tea and coffee. A total of €300,000 was spent to pay consultants. I ask, in the name of God, how can the Minister sit there and allow this charade to continue? There are consultants for everything and enough advisers. The Government might as well get them to make the tea and coffee because they would be more useful doing that, rather than giving advice because they give the Government the advice it wants them to give. It is the same in the case of the national children's hospital. The Government should bring in forensic construction contract consultants – I hate using that term – from Switzerland or somewhere where they have real teeth, who would be fair and not connected or contaminated, unlike most of them here, to give us some results. Instead, it pays a certain company, the name of which starts with a "P" and ends with a "C", €450 million, a figure which will grow because the Taoiseach told us that he has expanded the terms of reference. Therefore, we can be sure it will be €600 million. They are to tell it what it wants to know, what it thinks it can pour down our throats.

Ministers may think the people are fools, but they are not. Thankfully, we have an educated electorate which is waiting for the Ministers. It is waiting for them in the long grass, with a peann luí, a pencil, in polling booths. This is a democracy and the people have a right to put the Ministers out of their cosy bunkers, from which they will be run out quicker than snow off a ditch. Last year the snow came quite late in March and was gone in two days. The Ministers will be gone in a couple of hours. They will melt and wilt away, as they deserve to. I warned them about this in 2011 when Big Phil the Enforcer, the gang and the cabal were here terrorising people. They told us all in rural Ireland that we had dirty septic tanks that were polluting the water supply. He got his answer and fled to the European Union. The Ministers had no place to run or hide. It is worse now because they were given a fair warning and should be a little contrite, but they did not listen, na cluaisaí dúnta. My God, they will be made to listen and will not be back here. They will come back in a minibus which will not be a big one; it will be a 20-seater at most and they deserve no better. Is the IHREC not supposed to be the Government's consultant on human rights? The Ministers do not respect rights, whether human or otherwise. That has many connotations and the disrespect shown is so intimidating. What on earth is going on? When it comes to spending public money, there seems to be no end to it for consultants and it started several Governments before this one. We pay Ministers enough to do what they are supposed to do. They are either able to do it or they are not. If not, they should not hire consultants and spend money like confetti. Last week I called on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to review its instructions to personnel officers in respect of ministerial appointments and cut out the consultants. It followed information provided for me in the replies to several parliamentary questions which showed that at least €6.5 million had been paid for the retention of special advisers and press officers in all Departments since 2017. Are Ministers not able to spell, read or listen? Are they not able to work?

What jobs did members of the Government have before they came in here? They were elected on promises. Surely to God they know something. They have advisers, press secretaries, spin doctors and the whole shebang. They will need more than that when they go to meet the public. They will need skin massagers because the public will unleash vengeance on them for their reckless spending, their disgraceful arrogance, and their inept control. I did not even mention the children's hospital because everyone knows about that. It is a big black hole. It is barely out of the ground and the Government is continuing in the same vein. The Government should listen to the people. It is the wrong decision, the wrong place and the wrong site. The Minister should listen to the sick children because he may have grandchildren himself and they may fall sick. No sick child from any part of rural Ireland will ever go into that black hole.

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