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

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about a few anomalies. I thank the Government for many of the measures it has brought in, but we need to trim up a few things to make it equal for people who are not being catered for.

Kerry, Killarney in particular, is basically a tourist county. Many seasonal workers who traditionally work from the start of March until the end of October are missing out on the Covid-19 payment. In recent days the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, suggested that they were included, but I do not think they are included because the phone is reddened at home with people saying they are not being considered. If it were not for the coronavirus, they would be all working now. This is when they would be making their few bob to keep them going for the year. They are dependent on the work from March to October to keep them going. I am asking the Minister to see if she can do something for the people who have been left behind because it is just not fair.

As Deputy Berry said, there are people over the age of 66 who may be on a pension but for various reasons, including money they may have borrowed, still continue to work. At present they are getting a small payment of about €200. I am asking the Minister in these times to bring their payment up to €350. I am not asking for the €350 on top of their pension, but at least to bring it up €350 to give them some parity. The Government should do the best it can and operate as fair as it can.

We all, including the Minister, know that in the past 12 months farmers have been hitting very hard times with very low financial returns. It is worse than ever. I do not honestly know how they will continue. I know that some of them have applied for the Covid-19 payment. I do not know whether they will get it. I am depending on the Government to ensure they do. Pressure on health, including mental health, is a serious matter to which we must attend, but people can only take so much. The farmers have taken a lot over the past year and a half from the factories and with other things that have happened in their sector. Bad weather does not seem to manifest itself up here on the eastern side of the country at all. It has been pouring in the west of Ireland since last August until very recently. Farmers are depressed and very downtrodden at present. There are many poor farmers out there and I ask the Minister to look sympathetically on those who apply for the Covid-19 payment.

We are hearing that the banks are offering people a three-month holiday on loan payments. I am also hearing a worrying thing about the banks.

They want the interest before the crisis finishes or, at the latest, when people start paying back again. They are saying the principal can be paid back at the end but they are suggesting that the interest on the principal that is being forgone for three months will have to be paid up when people start paying back again. That will drive many people under and I am asking the Government to talk to these banks. It has a very sizeable share in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks. We lost so many companies and people between 2008 and 2012 and we cannot afford to lose any more.

There is another issue. The phone is reddened at home about it. It is students who have paid their rent up-front in universities and colleges around the country. I have no problem in the world in naming the campus in the University of Limerick. They are refusing to pay back the money that has been paid up-front to the end of May. It would be €1,000 or up to €1,500 in some cases. These universities are saving now on fuel, heating, lighting and refuse collection because there will be practically no students there. There may be a few from abroad, a very small number, who are staying there but aside from all that, these campuses should be giving back the rent to the parents and students involved. These people at home who are looking for the money back have no work. All they have now if they can get it is the €350 for each person who was working, and in many cases there was only one person working. It is very unfair and it is setting a very bad example when the national universities will not pay back this money. How can we expect private landlords, who are also in the frame and are not paying back, to behave? I am very sorry they are not because they are hurting honest, good-living, hard-working people who do not have a leprechaun behind them or a gold mine. They need their money back to give them a chance to start again next September or October, hoping that we start again. It is very unfair to hold on to money that is not being used. The Minister and Government have us told that anyone with a mortgage or loan will get a chance to pay it back. Those people, if they do have loans or mortgages, are going to get a chance and they will not have to pay until a certain time, until the economy starts rolling again. These parents and students need to get their money back as soon as possible.

We are in a time of crisis. We must all pull together. Something that I did not get to mention in respect of the testing is that we need a test place in Killarney. The old St. Finan's Hospital has a grand way in and a grand way out. A test centre could be set up there to cater for an area within a 25 mile radius, including Killarney, east Kerry and even into north-west Cork, as well as down to Kenmare and Sneem. Those people are very far away from Tralee and I am asking the Government to try to set up a centre there.

People are asking why it is taking so long to get tested. That is a worry. I had a couple waiting practically ten days before they were called. The other problem is that we are waiting too long for the test results to come back.

I am not giving out or scolding. Rather, I am asking the Government to do what it can do to ensure something positive happens in this regard.

The issue of nursing homes was raised. I have been contacted by nursing homes that are having difficulty maintaining staff numbers. They cannot recruit staff in the same manner as the HSE. I ask the Government to keep a watch on nursing homes and ensure that when the number of staff working in them at the coalface drops, assistance is provided. People are worried. It will fall back on patients in nursing homes if they are not properly looked after.

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