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

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the budget this evening. It will be remembered as a frightening budget because of the increase in the carbon tax. Many people would have thought that the carbon tax, which was put in place last year and is to last for another seven or eight years, would be paused this year in light of the increased cost of fuel coming into this country caused by worldwide prices. However, the Government is adding to the cost by ensuring that people pay this carbon tax. They will be paying it from midnight tonight or shortly afterwards.

This is going to affect every man, woman and child in the country, especially people who are working. It will affect people who get up early in the morning to drive long distances to work, mothers taking children to school and farmers. A chairman of one farming organisation said to me tonight:

All we can do, Danny, is keep putting the diesel in and keep paying the cost until we find we have no more money to pay. The way it is, we will go as far as we can but it is hard to see that we will be able to continue in any fair way for months longer into the future.

Then there are the transport costs for commercial vehicles. Can one imagine adding to their woes by imposing a carbon tax on them again today? Let us consider the passenger buses and the cost that is being added for them. It is a diminution of their income. The same applies to taxis. Any man or woman who has a wheel turning at all will be affected in a desperate way.

It is clear that the Government is staying in power with the support of the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth's, party. It is pandering to the party every day and everywhere. It is terrible that this is being meted out to people. The people in rural Ireland are affected most. What are the alternatives? The Government talks about wind energy from turbines out at sea. We are ten years away from that. In the meantime, people must live and try to stay warm in their homes. We are importing briquettes and peat moss for the horticulture industry. We have no alternatives. However, the Taoiseach said the other day that two gas burning electricity generators are broken down at present and it is hoped to get them working. Imagine we have reduced ourselves to that - close Shannonbridge and Lanesborough, forget about the 10,000 acres of bog in Littleton and let the people perish in their homes for the winter or, perhaps, have no light.

With regard to retrofitting and insulation, there is a wait of two and a half years. All we will see is new big shiny buses in Dublin and the people in rural areas suffering. The price of diesel and petrol has gone to €1.65 per litre and it is almost €1 for green diesel.

Then there is health. I do not accept that what has been suggested for health here today will resolve the problems we have been highlighting in UHK in Tralee.

People aged 90 years and more are waiting for three days in corridors on trolleys. The ambulance service we are getting at present is not acceptable. The ambulance service was reconfigured in 2012 or 2013, but now there is often no ambulance to be found in Tralee, Killarney, Kenmare or Cahersiveen because they may have been sent to Cork, Kinsale or somewhere else around the country. People may be left on the side of the road following an accident. I am aware of a farmer whose fingers were cut off and another farmer who had been attacked by a bull and no ambulance was to be found.

Nurses are worn out from working so hard with fewer numbers. Nurses are leaving in their droves for Australia. We need more doctors and consultants in our hospitals along with the teams that go with them. It is no good appointing a consultant without the team to accompany him.

I welcome the extra assistance to be given to childcare workers and the college students being allowed to travel on buses and trains for half fares. However, the big problem for students in Killarney and the Kerry area is that they need to drive to Cork and other colleges because they cannot get accommodation. There is another thing and it is a simple thing. Students should be allowed to work and earn more than €4,500. I welcome the reduction of the qualifying distance from 45 km to 30 km.

On housing, I ask the Minister to go back to the old model of buying sites and giving the funding to the local authorities to build social houses, as was done in the past and which was successful. We should go back to rural cottages on an applicant's own land. We should give funding to local authorities for demountable homes and raise the cap for families to qualify for council houses. For a couple with two children, the cap is €33,600. How could they afford to buy a house of their own?

Planning for one-off houses is restricted. An Bord Pleanála refuses 95% of the applications that are granted in rural parts of Kerry. When some nosy good-for-nothing objector appeals the decision of Kerry County Council, An Bord Pleanála does not recognise our county development plan. When Kerry County Council grants application, An Bord Pleanála refuses it.

Then we have another boyo, the planning regulator. He is dictating that less land should be zoned. How can we build houses if we do not zone land?

The Government let the fishermen down in the Brexit talks and let down the farmers. Macra na Feirme, the IFA and all the farming organisations feel they have been let down in this budget, through the reduction in the herd, the felling licences and in many other ways.

A man driving his own machine is now paying €250 more since the middle of the summer because of the extra cost. The Government is adding to that man's woes by increasing the carbon tax.

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