Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was here a while ago listening to Deputy Bruton and thought I may have been on a slightly different planet to the one on which he is, because, he is certainly not living on the reality planet in Ireland. As regards what we are facing in agriculture, I now see what the plan is, because he let it slip. If agriculture makes its cuts, it will help other sectors. Now we know what is happening in Dublin and Kildare and other places. We will save other sectors of society and the farmers of rural Ireland will have to take their cuts and hits, just like the people of rural Ireland. This climate action Bill was blindly supported by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and a couple of nod-and-wink Independents. They supported the infliction upon most of their constituents, but it does not matter to the Green Party Deputies, who are city-based and will not be worried about what they will get in rural Ireland, because they will get nothing there, only run from the doorsteps since people are furious.

Look at the people trying to pay for their fuel from day to day. Mothers and fathers are trying to take their children to school because there is no public transport in rural Ireland. We are totally dependent on the ordinary people who sit into their cars and who pull up the filling stations. They were able to buy their fuel for €1.10 a litre last year. They are paying €1.48 a litre now in many of the filling stations. This is thanks to the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and even to Sinn Féin, who voted for this climate action Bill. This is what they have done. They have attacked the ordinary people in the ordinary towns and villages of rural Ireland. We are paying for it.

Now I am hearing that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, bought three beautiful buses for €2.4 million for Dublin. We are paying for that. We cannot afford to carry the country on our back. The Government parties have to understand that. We are facing electric blackouts. Let me tell Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party, that if there is an electric blackout in this country they will be ran out of the Dáil. They should not think that they will not. They had better be petrified and watch what they are doing. The are taking this country to the edge.

The edge is close for a lot of people, because they cannot afford to put the fuel in the tank. Green energy would be lovely and beautiful, but it is not happening. Warmer homes are not being delivered in rural Ireland. People cannot buy coal because the Government has put it out of their price range. They cannot buy the fuel for the fire. When is the Government going to stop? When is it going to understand that people are suffering? These are ordinary, country good living people that voted for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil but never the Green Party. Now the ordinary people are getting a kick in the teeth when they listen to Deputy Bruton and his dream. He wants to let agriculture take its cuts so that other sectors can be saved. Well, wow, that is the dream. That is not where Fine Gael came from. They are not the roots of Fine Gael. Many would turn in their graves from listening to this kind of an attitude that Fine Gael has today. The way things have happened is shocking. They have had lots of opportunities. I put one before Minister sometime back about a floating LNG terminal in Cork to try and turn things around but he is not interested. I do not know why he is not interested. That is a way to turn things around. Experts are coming back to this country and are willing to invest in this country. We need to put something in place. All we are doing is ruining things. People cannot sow forestry in this country. Because we cannot sow forestry, we have to import it. We have to import the peat moss from Latvia all over the country. We are the laughing stock of the world. The Brazilians must be falling over in stitches because of what is happening in this country. For the love and honour of God, everyone in government should wake up and smell the grass grow each

I can see things from talking to my constituents. They should go out and knock on the doors of their constituents and ask them if they can afford to take a hit from €1.10 per litre to €1.48. They are trying to drive their children to school. They are trying to go to work. Businesspeople tell me that they are struggling to keep the shirts on their backs and to keep the employees going, because they cannot pay what Government expects them to pay. The Government parties down on their backs. They are expecting too much. They expect that they are going to get away with what they do without looking round.

They have not even touched public transport. Shame on them. We have the same transport service that we had 25 years ago in west Cork. It has not moved one way or another, only for West Cork Connect, and Damien Long, a local operator, who is trying to do it off his back and taking people up in Cork. Only for that, we have nothing. That is what we get in rural Ireland, zero, so that we can feed the Government above in Dublin. That is not going to continue.

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