Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is exactly to do with the amendment. The amendment from the Rural Independent Group concerns how we are being unfairly portrayed as I do not know what and how the Government is trying to extract more money from rural people. You cannot get blood out of a stone. They are struggling and being put to the pin of their collar just to live and pay their way. They want to be left alone. We cannot have €2 million paid for fancy buses that are driven by hydrogen and combinations of batteries and everything else. There were people today running onto them to see what kind of seats they had. A seat on a bus is a seat on a bus. It just needs safety belts, like any bus. There is no talk about how they are going to run. I hope there will be a push board on the back of it for when the bus stops for lack of charge or hydrogen so that passengers can push it out of the way if it stops in the middle of the street somewhere and blocks the traffic.

"To hell or to Connacht" is the mantra of this Government for the people of rural Ireland. It has never changed since Cromwell's time. The Government has us discussing this legislation in the middle of the night like the Peep o' Day Boys and is forcing it through under guillotine. It is scandalous. The people of rural Ireland have had enough. We have people outside tonight protesting about what has been done to them all over the country, both urban and rural. However, this relentless, consistent attack on rural Ireland must be outed and stopped because we are not asking for anything except to be left alone to live in peace. We comply with all the regulations. We are peaceful and support An Garda Síochána and all the other functions but enough is enough and we are not going to accept any more. The Government will have civil unrest if it keeps at this craic. Is that what it wants? I do not know what masters the Government is serving. Is this about Europe and the Lisbon treaty, which we voted on twice because we did not accept the people's vote the first time? I am the bigger eejit because I canvassed for both of them, although I found out my mistake. This is an outrageous attack on the people of rural Ireland. It is dividing and segregating communities into urban versus rural. It is not a good thing for society and for social life or anything else, going forward. We are a small island and we should all be able to live together with a modicum of fair play.

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