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

He is a very special man and we all like him very much. However, it is very wrong that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have not seen fit to have senior Ministers present. I have reservations about much of what Deputies from Sinn Féin are saying, but I have terrible respect for their right to say it. I thank them for debating this matter because whatever opinion one has on what they are saying, it is good that this issue is getting an airing.

We can debate this matter and come to our own conclusions but, from my point of view and in the context of my experience, there are different time periods during a person's life. When a person is young and starting out, the type of accommodation he or she requires is not what he or she will require a couple of years after that when they get the legs under them. We all want to see everybody having their own front door, whether that is a privately owned house, a local authority house or in whatever accommodation they can afford - in a proper fashion and of the type and size they want. That is what we aspire to people having but they will not have it at the beginning of their working lives because everybody has to put up with things. Everybody has to have a place that is comfortable but that might not be 100% what they would want because it might not be their own. You work and you keep working. I say to the people in Sinn Féin that work is how a person gets what he or she wants. It does not fall out of the sky. There is no such thing, in this country or anywhere else, as a free lunch and people should always remember that. Somebody has to pay. I have plenty more to say but I will get an opportunity again.

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