Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly on this issue in the House today. I am aware the European Council focused on several issues such as vaccination rates throughout the EU, the new variants of the virus, as well as the EU economic recovery in post-pandemic times. We saw this week that the economic recovery here is on a knife edge in terms of the ongoing restrictions and draconian measures put in place, which will force many small businesses to close their doors permanently. When I speak about small businesses I mean business that have been passed down through generations in Irish families.

The fact that NPHET is now governing this country, rather than the Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, is nothing short of a disgrace.

NPHET has a mandate to give advice. It does not have a mandate to govern this country, and never will. It must be strongly challenged in this House because what the Government has done to businesses is absolutely unjustifiable. Many businesses had put in their orders. This did not happen anywhere else in Europe. That is why I am raising it in the context of statements on the European Council meeting. It did not happen in any other European country. Those countries have not prohibited indoor dining. However, this Government does not seem to be standing up for its own people. In fact, it appears to be betraying every sector of society. We need only look at the fishermen, the farmers and the small businesses the Government has helped to destroy.

In the context of the CAP reforms, what is on the table is totally unacceptable. It is causing much division in different sectors of agriculture. The Minister must step up to the mark and fight for the Irish agriculture sector, which is in grave danger. A transition payment, the results-based environment-agri pilot project transition payment, has been put in place, but that is unacceptable too. There should have been a base payment of €10,000 for farmers while we wait for the CAP reforms to come into effect in 2023.

In the broader recovery, some €500 million of the EU's Covid-related recovery and resilience facility for Ireland will be spent on reducing carbon emissions. The Government seems to have an obsession with that, to the detriment of its own people. This means that more than 50% of the €1 billion loan provided by the EU will be for green initiatives such as a loan scheme for refitting homes. Will the Government just wake up and put the climate action Bill where it deserves to go, namely, into the recycling bin? The Government must wake up. It is going beyond what the EU is asking it to do and it is betraying the people in this country, which is shameful.

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