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

This is a very anti-rural Ireland budget. To be honest, reading the many emails I received this evening about the budget from various organisations, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael politicians should be wary when they go back to their constituencies because they are going to get it in the neck. Farming organisations and rural people are furious. They working hard. Why is this happening? The Green Party is wagging the tail of this Government. Where better to get the money for its pet projects than from rural Ireland? Carbon tax is a direct attack on the people of rural Ireland.

The prices of car fuel, home heating oil and coal have gone through the roof. Speak to agricultural contractors tonight. Speak to lorry drivers. Speak to the mothers and fathers who try to take their children to school in the morning and try to go to work every day in rural Ireland. They do not have public transport. Speak to them. What do they think about the budget? I can tell the Government they will make it very clear what they feel about the budget. There is an extra fuel allowance for people, which is desperately needed at this stage, but I see a huge increase in the number of people coming to my constituency office who are looking to get on the fuel allowance scheme but cannot do so. They fall between cracks because no expenditure is allowed on the scheme. It is all based on earnings but not on expenses and this is terribly unfair. The Government had an opportunity to have 0% on insulation products. This is something the Rural Independent Group wanted to put forward to encourage people to insulate their homes. The Green Party is in government, but this is being left as it is and the people are being punished. They are not being encouraged to insulate their homes. This was the Government's opportunity to do so.

What was announced for agriculture today? Did the Government read the emails from the IFA, the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, the ICMSA and Macra na Feirme? They are in disbelief. They are baffled by what the Government has done. It has done nothing for farmers. This is what they are saying. It is not what I am saying. The Government is keeping payments more or less at the same levels. We can forget about the Green Party because agriculture has been off its agenda since long ago. Are Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael deaf? Did they not hear the plea from the organisations for the survival of suckler farmers? They need €300 for each suckler cow to give them any chance to survive. They did not get it. They need €30 extra for a ewe.

The only increase in the budget for farming is being given to animal welfare groups. That is fine if that is the future for Irish farming. There is nothing for dairy farmers. The men and women now facing double the price for bag manure are looking at fuel crisis costs on their farms. They do not know when this will end. The Government is out of touch completely. It will know it when it faces the farmers and country people in the next election. This is a shocking blow for Irish farmers. The great Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil plan, hand-in-hand with the Green Party, is to squeeze the life out of Irish agriculture. As one Fine Gael Deputy said in the Dáil last week, agriculture has to take its cuts now for other sectors to survive. If we needed reminding, today is a glaring reminder of what is happening.

There is nothing in the budget for Irish fishers, whom Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party ruined as they took millions from their income only a few months ago. This was an ideal time to put together a package but again there is zero as the Government continues to show it contempt for this industry.

The disability sector said it is baffled the budget is not meeting its minimum investment of €350 million in disability services. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, should listen to this because it is his area. I assume pay parity will be off the table once again for those in CoAction and other such organisations. Residential homes such as those in Castletownbere will be closing their doors in November because they cannot get staff because of pay parity issues. This is what CoAction tells me. These organisations cannot compete with the others.

Was any budget set aside by the Government in health or disability to encourage people to work in remote communities? We need to do this. This is the real world. These are the facts. SouthDoc in Castletownbere is collapsing because it cannot find anybody to go there. This is what I am being told by the health board. CoAction states it cannot get workers throughout west Cork because of pay parity issues. It is one issue on top of the other. Now we are seeing residential units closing. I contacted the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, at the end of September with regard to the closure of the residential unit in Castletownbere. He came back to me in an email on 29 September saying he would look into the matter and come back. The clock is ticking. Residential homes are closing. People with intellectual disabilities are being asked to go 100 km away from their homes. This cannot happen on the Minister's watch or anybody's watch if there is any respect for them. I appeal to the Minister to do everything in his power to resolve this issue.

There are 1 million people on waiting lists and many of them are in serious pain. The budget will not tackle the issue. We laid it out in the Rural Independent Group's budget submission. For us to tackle the issue we need hospitals open 24-7 and not a few hours every day. In Bantry General Hospital the surgical unit is open only two days a week. This is a scandalous carry-on. People are suffering and in serious pain. People are going blind. Pain is pain, be it to the hip or wherever it is. Some people might require very small surgical procedures and more might require very important surgical procedures. They are not happening and 1 million people are waiting. It is a crazy, insane situation. There is nothing for student nurses in the budget. I hate to say the health system in the country is on the verge of collapse because it has almost collapsed and blind people can see that. There is no SouthDoc service in rural communities several nights a week. It is incredible.

The €5 increase in the pension for elderly people is very welcome and I would be a fool not to welcome it but we must remember it was the first increase for many years. They have fallen €15 behind because the Government failed to increase the pension in other years. They are now €10 behind. It is a terribly unfair situation.

I welcome the youth travel card, which will lead to a 50% cost decrease for young people travelling on public transport. It has to be welcomed. There is one small problem. We do not have transport in rural Ireland. It will be brilliant for people in Dublin, Cork and Galway. I would really like to see the people in rural Ireland having a proper transport service so those children could go on the bus, link with another bus and get to college on the day they start the journey, and not three or four days later. This is a serious issue.

There is €1.4 billion for the national development plan. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste were kicking a ball around Páirc Uí Chaoimh last week. They did not kick the ball down to west Cork. No road there will get a brown cent. There is not one bypass. Twenty years ago was the last time money was spent on the roads in west Cork. The Government forgot to kick the ball down there this time. The ball has been kicked up the road somewhere. The Government has certainly left west Cork hanging once again. This will not be forgotten. A total of €1.4 billion has been put into MetroLink and the DART link. In rural Ireland we do not have either. We have none of them. It looks as if we will be spending masses of money on carbon tax and on our fuel so we can buy more and more fancy buses such as the last three the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, bought in Dublin for €2.4 million. Where are we going to stop? As I said in the Dáil last week, the people of rural Ireland cannot keep carrying the country on our back. The budget was an ideal opportunity to try to turn this around, but the Government failed miserably to make any movement on it or to help the incomes of the people in rural Ireland.

With regard to the 980 SNAs, last night I attended a board of management meeting in west Cork. I received a call from another school that needs three SNAs but it is getting half an SNA. This will not scratch the surface. I wish to God it would but it will not.

With regard to the 800 extra gardaí, the Government forgot to remind the people that 400 gardaí have been gone since last year so we were 400 down already. This is an increase of only 400. An increase is an increase and it is important that gardaí are on the street and I hope they will be on the street. This budget will not be accepted in rural Ireland and I certainly will not support it.

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