Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This Bill shows how far out of touch the present Government is with reality. I refer to the reality of rural Ireland. It shows how little the Government thinks of anyone outside a large city. The Government wants those people to pay the most for all its projects, but it returns nothing to the counties. A budget of €18 billion was presented for 2021, but the allocation of €5 million in funding for digital hubs and €132 million for the national broadband plan is completely inadequate. This was a missed opportunity to benefit people working from home. Can we imagine what it is like to be asked to work from home and not have access to broadband?

It is then necessary to drive to the nearest crossroads or village to see if it might be possible to pick up broadband. This is an unbelievable situation. Let us try to imagine that we are students in college and we must go online for our lectures. Who would believe there is no broadband available? The obvious solution in the budget was to provide adequate funding to accelerate the roll-out of broadband. Imagine the way that could have transformed parts of Ireland into vibrant rural communities, with all the associated benefits for the entire area in which people live. That was again a missed opportunity.

The increase of carbon taxes in the budget, which affected the haulage industry and motorists, was grossly unfair. I agree with the report from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, which stated that rural households will be more affected than urban households because they spend a greater share of their incomes on heating fuels and transport.

I had said earlier in a Dáil debate that one has to incentivise a change in behaviour. The Government cannot ask people in rural Ireland to change when they have no alternative options. As Eddie Punch from the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, said, "If you have a Luas outside your door, you may decide to take it if it is more expensive to drive your car into town." That is all very well when people have alternatives but living in rural Ireland there is no alternative.

The Government is taxing the people of County Limerick and investing nothing back into infrastructure. There is nothing for the sewerage plant that has been asked for in Askeaton for more than 30 years. Nothing is being invested in basic maintenance so people can keep their houses from flooding even when they are not on a flood plain. If travelling to Dublin from where I live in Granagh, I have to either drive to Newcastlewest to Adare and to Arthur's Quay in Limerick or to Mungret or Annacotty to get on a green bus. There are no parking facilities for me to park there, so I must get someone to drive me there. That is when I come up to Dublin on the bus. When I go back down I also have to get someone to collect me. That is four journeys but we will get no infrastructure.

What did the Government do when denying medical certs for drivers who have a disability? The Government went to the Supreme Court but lost the case when five Supreme Court judges voted against it. The then Minister for Finance met with the then Minister for Health and cancelled all the medical certs for drivers with disabilities and now there are some 1,700 waiting. The Government continued the assessments and told them they were on a list, but that list does not exist.

The Government invests in nothing in rural Ireland. Rural Limerick and rural Ireland will not stand for it. I put it to the Minister that the next time he comes knocking on the door in a rural area I hope all the people in Ireland will remember the Government for another Dublin budget and for giving nothing back to the county of Limerick.

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