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

Yes, I am coming to that but Deputy Boyd Barrett was allowed to make statements here tonight and he must be taken to task on them. He must be asked whether he accepts that there is a crisis in our timber industry at present. Why are we debating this? Why is the Bill coming in here at all? Why have party and non-party Deputies agreed to facilitate the passing of this legislation in the first instance without pre-legislative scrutiny? It is because we all recognise that there is a crisis in the timber industry. Why is there a crisis in the timber industry? It is because the whole system is choked up. The felling licences that are required are not being processed in time and here is Deputy Boyd Barrett standing up, just because somebody sent him a tweet in the last ten minutes. He read it and is taking it as gospel from holy God. He is so confused that he had to hold his tablet in his hand in case he was misreading what was sent to him. He had facts there ten minutes ago that he did not have 20 minutes ago. He is now taking what came to him through his bloody iPhone as the gospel truth, according to God in heaven above. One would swear He sent the Deputy a message directly. Is Deputy Boyd Barrett trying to deny that there is a crisis in the forestry industry? Is he trying to deny that we will be importing timber this week from Scotland because if we do not do so, our sawmills will fall silent? God help our sawmills, our farmers, contractors and lorry men. They would be relying on a very sad individual in here tonight to help them if they were relying on what has come out of Deputy Boyd Barrett's mouth in the last 20 minutes. The sawmills would stay completely silent and they would be silent for a long time. I have often heard Deputy Boyd Barrett talking about the working man but he would not know a day's work if it came up and hit him between the two eyes. I do not like being personal about anything but when I hear fellows talking rubbish, I get annoyed. Just because some unknown person sent the Deputy a tweet, he puts it on the record of the Dáil as if it is the gospel and he is denying the fact that we have respectable people telling us that the sawmills do not have timber coming into their yards. The Deputy is coming out here tonight with drivel. What he has just said is drivel.

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