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

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on important matters relating to the budget. The first is my displeasure with the increase in carbon tax. As everyone knows, we have paid carbon tax for many years and it is just another tax for hard-pressed motorists. As the Minister of State will know, people in rural Ireland need a car and cannot move anywhere without one. The days of walking or cycling to work are over. It is not economically efficient because time is now so valuable. Let us remember all the drivers travelling to work, mothers taking their children to school, and youngsters going to college, apprenticeships or whatever. We in rural Ireland cannot move anywhere without a car. In places in the west such as Glencar or Cahirsiveen, the next stop to the west is America and people must travel east for everything. Even to visit a hospital in Cork, it takes two and a half hours to travel from Cahirsiveen or Dingle, and there is no other way of doing it because there is no public transport, no train or bus, at the time one might want it. While buses may travel around the ring of Kerry at certain times of the day, perhaps serving the larger towns, they do not serve rural areas such as Valencia Island or Ventry. In all the remote places in between, such as the Black Valley, to travel to Kenmare it can take three quarters of an hour of solid driving. While much of the driving may be in second or third gear, drivers must be on their marks to complete the journey safely because there are turns and bends. It is possible to make good time on the journey but there is no other way of getting into or out of such places. The same is true of the Pocket in Glenmore, which is so remote that it is two and a quarter hours from Cork city. It is nearly the same distance to Killarney or Tralee, to which people must travel if they want to do simple tasks such as renewing their driver licence. It is a day's work. The Minister of State is smiling but-----

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