Dáil debates

Wednesday, 27 May 2020

Covid-19 (Local Government): Statements

 

10:25 pm

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

I thank my local authority, Kerry County Council, its management and workers for the great work they have been doing continually during this virus. I thank Radio Kerry, the Garda and all the voluntary workers around the county who have done tremendous work for people cocooning and those who are very isolated.

It is only now that we realise the value of businesses and employers. I have mentioned several times here that Friday evening is not long coming when someone has a team of men or women to pay. These are the very people who are paying for each and every one of us here. Consider what happens when they stop working. We see now there are no rates. There has been a lot of commotion over extending the three-month waiver in respect of the rates but in Kerry County Council there has always been a waiver system or reduction system for those not working or whose turnover is reduced, no thanks to the current Government. The question is whether the Government will replenish the money that would normally come in from the businesses to keep the services going.

Does the Minister of State or his Department have anything to do with the cut to the travel allowance for workers in our local authority? It is very wrong to cut the travel allowance of these people, who are under a lot of pressure to keep services going. Temporary workers have also been told that their contracts will not be renewed even though some have been working for the local authority for two or three years. That is not fair or right. They threw their lot in with the local authority. We are going to have reduced services if we have a reduced workforce.

On infrastructural projects, we have been promised that we will work our way out of this financial problem. I appeal to the Government to keep infrastructural projects that are ready to go, such as road and water schemes, on track and to keep them going. I ask the Government to ensure that the roads programme is not cut because, as Deputy Mattie McGrath said with regard to local improvement schemes and community involvement schemes, people in rural Ireland, including in Kerry, are every bit as entitled to good roads to their doors as people in Dublin 4.

With regard to planning in rural areas, perhaps the powers that be will now realise the value of people living in rural Ireland. They are isolated from these kinds of viruses. Perhaps we will now appreciate the value of people living in rural Ireland instead of living on top of one another here in Dublin. With regard to rural cottages and demountable homes, the previous Government certainly let rural Ireland down. For the period 2016 to 2021, 13 rural cottages are to be built in Kerry even though there are almost 70 people on a list who wish to build houses on their own land, possibly their farms, to be near their own people. We have had only one demountable home sited in the past three years. When a house in which an elderly man lived fell into disrepair, the local authority used to bring in a demountable home in which he could remain until the end of his days.

Applicants are being excluded from the housing list. Perhaps that is how the Government is reducing the numbers on it. When a couple with three children begins to earn more than €33,600, they are thrown off the list. Who could buy a house or get a mortgage on that income? It is totally unacceptable.

I ask the Government to keep the Killarney bypass progressing on track. I ask that the doors of the local authority buildings that supply and deliver services be opened as soon as possible. When the bank and shop on a street is open, what difference would it make to open the doors of the local authority in order to bring normality back to our country?

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