Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with my two colleagues, who have two minutes each. The entertainment industry, which has a wide embrace, is extraordinarily important to our health and well-being. It is important not only to the entertainers and their families, who are dependent on them, but to us, the recipients, including many people who are bedbound, housebound, invalided or disabled. They love to be entertained by these people. These men and women give of their talents generously. They do all manner of fundraising gigs for many communities. They have to be supported.

The pandemic unemployment payment must be kept. It was cut yesterday but it must be retained for these people. A total of €6 million has been granted, including €1 million for the arts sector. The people I am talking about include those in showbands, one man bands, one woman bands and those working in the pub scene. They have an industry around them. They need vans, equipment, back-up sound and light and everything else. From the talks I have had with them, I understand they have been in talks with Government. The Government and the Department simply do not understand the system or what these people need. They need cash flow to try to stay alive and keep food on the table. That is very important.

As I mentioned, entertainment and community groups do excellent work. Muintir na Tíre was first founded in Tipperary. It has an excellent secretary there in Marian O'Dwyer. It has done great work. It got an old school building after the technical school closed in the 1970s. It has transformed it into a fabulous community centre and hub. It has now received approval for a grant of €139,000 for upgrades and special rooms to cater for different events. Technological events have been set up as well. The problem is that 20% was to be repaid by the community group, Newcastle Muintir na Tíre. It had no bother doing that. It was delighted to get the 80% grant but it cannot now fundraise in any shape, make or form. The grant is lying there and cannot be drawn down. We must do something for cases like this. There are many communities like this throughout the country. They are ready, willing and able. They are the enablers. They give our community the dynamic to keep going. They look after the community alert system, all the funeral parties and concerts. The McGrath school does dancing there. There is all manner of keep-fit classes and everything. It is largely booked up. I salute the caretaker, Catherine Moran, who does a wonderful job there.

The problem is the organisation cannot raise €20,000 in these circumstances. Maybe we should give it to it and ask it to pay it back when things recover and it is able to fundraise. We need to think outside the box and allow it to carry on developing. It will stimulate the local economy. There will be a contractor and the plasterers, block-layers, electricians and everyone else will have work. The local hardware shops will do business. We must think outside the box and allow it to do the works on this building. It can fundraise when it is allowed and when we are back singing, dancing and having fun - when there is hope again in our country. We do not have that anymore.

I mentioned mental health earlier. The amount of damage that has been done to mental health is shocking because of the gloom and doom on RTÉ morning, noon and night. Can we not cut off these figures? I know from a journalist already about expected happenings in Dublin. It is annoying and terrorising people. There is fear. Instead of giving hope and support we must have the spirit of the Meitheal. It is like the spirit of the late great Canon Hayes, who founded Muintir na Tíre. We never needed it more.

We have this dysfunctional Government. Thankfully, the Green Party has been left out of it today but the other two are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I do not know who is "dum" and who is "dee" but the public know what is going on and they are not happy. They are willing and ready to do battle and to do what they are asked to do, but there is confusion. What does the Government do? It hires a big public relations company, Teneo. If the Government brought that company in for the disaster this week, it should close the door again fast, whatever kind of contract there is. The people do not want spin. They want those in the Government to be seen to roll up their sleeves and do the work like people in the meitheal did. They worked with the people and stood with the people and supported them. That is badly needed.

The banks are not working. Banks are sending letters to the publicans already, in anticipation of the opening next Monday, to look for the waivers that were given in terms of the delay. Other EU countries have brought in legislation to deal with the banks. We do not have a scintilla of legislation to deal with these banks. I said it here previously; the bank robbers now are within the banks. They are not coming in with the guns. They are inside banks and robbing the people from the inside. I backed legislation to support the banks on that long, terrible night we spent in this House. It was the biggest mistake politically I ever made in my life, but what did the banks do? Pardon the expression but they are screwing every one of us. They are sending out letters now to struggling publicans and those in other businesses who are trying to get up off the ground, dust themselves down and get going ahead. That is wrong because they want to come in straight away with the first demand, and I am sure the Revenue will not be far behind them. We have to have legislation to deal with the banks because that practice is not acceptable. We must deal with them.

The self-employed are the backbone of the country and they must be supported because they are the people, whether it be the small bus owner who got nothing from Bus Éireann because he or she was not contracted to it, the van driver, the ready-mix driver or the one-man cattle operation. They are all parked up because they did not pay rates and could not get anything because they did not operate from a yard. They must be looked after. We must think outside the box. The system is unable to adjust to all of this.

Mo focal scoir. I ask the Minister of State, please, to try to change the system. I salute the civil servants who work so hard here and officials in my county council also, but we need to be able to adapt. It should not be all about form filling, regulations, accounts from last year and the year before and whatever. This is a different time. All people want is to put bread on the table, clothe their children and be able to get back out into the spirit of work again, particularly the people in the entertainment industry because they give us all a lift and raise our spirits.

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