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

I have been requested to highlight an anomaly regarding wholesalers. Wholesalers to the catering industry will not qualify for any package. Even though the Government has said they will, that is not the case according to the Revenue. That is very unfair. It is possible for them to stay open, but what are they going to do without customers? They cannot live on the wind. Suppliers of fish, vegetables and meat and bakeries that were supplying hotels and restaurants are not functioning at all.

Turning to carers, the extra €10 million the Government has said it would dedicate to them is not enough. It is not enough for home and respite services, because there are now no day services. We must compensate for that situation and ensure that these carers, who are already being driven into the ground, can pay for people to help them. The housing adaptation grant is a welcome part of the local authority grants system in Kerry, but we need to get more funding for it. It is intended to help people with disabilities who need to adapt their houses, but there is not enough money to go around for all the applicants.

The provision of primary medical certificates for people with disabilities has been suspended since the middle of the summer. I appeal to the Minister, because people with disabilities are again stranded in their homes. I am referring to people who get strokes and elderly people who cannot move around and who need to adapt the car or buy a specially adapted car to allow them to go out of their homes for certain things. There used to be grants to help people in poor circumstances if something went wrong in their home, but that has been scrapped. That is very unfortunate, because a person with a reasonably good house might need some work to be done on it. We need more money for home helps and to keep people in their homes for as long as possible.

The closure of beds in Killarney Community Hospital and in other community hospitals will have to be made up in some other way. Rooms will have to be adapted or rented in hotels to ensure that people who are sick and need attention can go into hospitals and be seen. We cannot just tell them not to get sick. When this pandemic started, the Government said that it would be different from the experience of the recession ten or 12 years ago. The Government said funding would be available at low interest rates, that work would continue and we would work our way out of this difficulty. I am calling, therefore, for funding for infrastructural schemes such as the sewerage scheme in Kilcummin. Places such as Kenmare, Curragh, Scartaglin, Castleisland, Brosna and Caherdaniel all need work done to their sewerage systems. There is no sewerage system in Scartaglin or Curragh and we need funding to realise projects in those places.

I also request funding for the Killarney bypass, because the town can be choked by traffic at times. The Ring of Kerry road also needs a special improvement grant for the stretch from Caherdaniel to Sneem and then onward to Blackwater Bridge. I am also calling for funding for group water schemes, which appear to be in trouble with new red tape and guidelines. The Government reduced the grant for treating water in wells from €2,200 to €1,000. We also need funding for rural cottages, housing maintenance, a tenant purchase scheme and broadband. I refer to €3 billion being provided over five years. When is that €3 billion going to arrive? We are also bereft of mobile coverage in many parts of Kerry.

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