Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Maith an obair. That is okay. Gabh mo leithscéal. I think Deputy Collins was misinformed on that and my office might have been to blame for that. I am sorry. One learns something every day.

The Minister of State is from a rural county. He knows what is needed. It is not the red tape and the lámh mór around money and finance. The banks are closed. We might as well forget about them. They will not look after anyone so it is up to the Government in terms of what it can deliver directly. It should not let the greasy paws of the bankers charge interest for it and for people to be forced to get the money from the banks. I have bank statements in my hand from today. There was nothing going on in my bank. I brought them in by accident and was looking through them earlier. They have standing charges for this and direct debit charges for that. The number of charges is scandalous. How can any ordinary businessman deal with that? The banks are getting away with this. Where are the regulators? What are they doing? They are not there, and they should not be paid. We need to deregulate and get rid of many of them.

Under the programme for Government, 102 new bodies are to be set up, various actions are to be taken, and quangos, citizens' assemblies, review boards - you name it - are to be appointed. That is the merry-go-round that is crippling this country and, quite frankly, the people of rural Ireland, and the people of Tipperary, are sick and tired of it. The Minister of State knows that. He saw that in the election. They are sick of the red tape, spin and promises. The saying is "Live horse and you will get grass" but all the horses are nearly gone, and the people who worked the horses are dead. It is time that reality was brought home to the quangos and senior public servants. They have their hands on the handlebars of power here. We should take them off them, with force if necessary, and let the people who want to do so work. Let the taxi drivers back to work. We should support them and not stifle them.

I thank all the businesses for opening. I thank the Government for allowing the barbers that shut and obeyed the rules to open again. I have no time for the people who flouted the laws during the lockdown. They were a minority but they did it. The black market was thriving but the people who used that are worse. I have great admiration for the ordinary small business owners. They want to pick themselves up and get off the ground, but they are facing huge costs. Bord Fáilte issued a 22-page document on how the pubs should operate. Bord Fáilte is a tourism organisation. Tourism is very important but why did it get that job? Was it simply that it came in to be handy? We want practical support.

The people of Ireland will be careful and will behave respectably but they want to be treated with respect and given support. We should let out the publicans, undertakers, butchers, barbers, small bus operators, taxi and hackney owners, small farmers, forge workers and all those people. They will do their business without the need for over-regulation and overreach. A one-size-fits-all approach is not suitable. I am shocked that the Taoiseach made a statement in which he said the reopening of all the pubs might be threatened because of the behaviour of people here in central Dublin where one might pay twice the price for beverages that one would pay in the country, and one would not get half the personal service. I like to have a beverage in some places in Dublin. I am knocking that but I am knocking the behaviour, and it appears we have to be punished for it.

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