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

I want to follow up on what Deputy Mattie McGrath has said. There are people out there who feel like the forgotten people in all of this. These are people who have worked very hard, including musicians, taxi drivers, people involved in the haulage industry, people who are on the road and who never wanted anything for nothing. They never wanted anything other than to be given the opportunity to work in a very fair way. They feel that they are being hit in an extraordinary way. They feel that what is being discussed here and the implications of this budget and this year's Finance Bill, as well as next year's and that of every year for the next ten years will have an extraordinary effect on them and their livelihoods. What worries me greatly is that an awful lot of people in Ireland do not realise the full implications of what this Government is doing. It is tying the hands of future Governments to increases in a way that never happened before. The Government is unique in what it is doing to future generations and future politicians, who are having their hands tied now. I have great concerns about it and am speaking on behalf of those hard-working people who are going to have to pay the price for what is contained in this Bill. I want to speak up for them and for the people in County Kerry whom I am very glad to represent. I think of the taxi ranks in Tralee, Killarney, Listowel and other places like Kenmare, late at night with drivers waiting to collect fares. I think of those people who have to wait and wait for a fare in order to make a few euro only to give back an awful amount of it in excise duty and tax, every time they roll the wheels of their vehicles, the same as the people in the haulage industry. These are people who are revenue collectors for the State, the Department of Finance and ultimately, for the Minister for Finance. They are out there, working hard, collecting money to give to the Minister to run the country. The only trouble is that in the future, the Minister is going to be looking for an extraordinary amount of money from them on top of what they are already paying and I am standing up to speak on behalf of those people tonight.

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