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

Unfortunately, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister were asleep at the wheel and we will pay a high price.

What was in the budget yesterday for the people of the islands of this country? Will there be a social housing budget that has not been there for many years? I did not see it in the budget. I did not see anything about islands. There are some beautiful islands off west Cork: Bere Island, Whiddy Island, Dursey, Sherkin, Cape Clear, Long Island - I have probably left out one or two. They are fabulous islands. There are people trying to make a living there. Tourism is trying to get its feet on the ground. They need a bit of a boost. People want to live on islands. They cannot live there any more because there is no social housing. They are not allowed to build because they will not be allowed planning permission. There is nothing for the islands in this budget.

There are other issues such as the health crisis. A lot of rural places are finding it very difficult. I refer to CoAction and other such groups. There is no pay parity, which affects competition. Homes for people with intellectual disabilities are being shut in November in Castletownbere. I have been told they cannot get staff. That is not good enough. There is nothing in the budget to change that around. There is no pay parity to resolve this. There is a massive wage difference between a person who works in a home where there are people with intellectual disabilities and a person who works in a hospital with the HSE. The budget will not bring them together. There should be tied into the budget an allowance for rural workers, that is, people working in rural communities. They may not work in those communities because of the cost of travelling to and fro. Something like that has to be tied into the budget to give people an incentive. We have to look at our health. Our health system is on its knees. There was an opportunity. We are only pumping money into management. The HSE is a bottomless pit. It was nearly worse than the children's hospital for a while. It was a case of just pumping away and pumping away and hoping for the best. We have not looked at any solution to resolve the waiting lists. There is an opportunity here. We have to look at what the first thing we need to do is. We need our hospitals open 24-7. We are afraid to open our hospitals 24-7. That is an incredible situation to be in. We should be delighted to open them. Private hospitals are working 24-7 in Belfast. We take people to the North every day of the week. The doctors there show us how they can carry out hundreds and hundreds of surgeries every month, but we in this country are afraid to tackle this issue. We are playing with people's lives and they are suffering severe pain for want of an operation.

As for pensions, the €5 increase is great. In fairness, that should have been there for the past two years. Experts on the radio yesterday morning said senior citizens have lost €15 in the past few years on the basis that they got no increase of €5 as they should have had each year. At least it is €5 in their pockets that they badly need, and they greatly appreciate that. You would wonder, though, what happened in the past few years that there was no increase in the senior citizen pension? There is an argument there for maybe a €10 increase this year, but you cannot expect to do everything in one day.

I look at the €1.4 billion in the NDP. I mentioned last night that we had the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, kicking a ball around Páirc Uí Chaoimh last week. The sad thing is that they kicked the ball up the road, but they did not kick it down to south-west Cork at all. There is not a brown cent going into roads in west Cork other than for pothole repair. Blast it, we deserve something. We are citizens of the State too and we pay the highest amount of tax in the State because we are furthest from the Dáil and nearest to the White House. That should be remembered. The people of west Cork are being condemned. There is a southern relief road in Bandon left idle for the past 17 or 18 years. There is a northern relief road that will not get a brown cent. There is a Bantry bypass not going to be done. The Innishannon bypass is not going to be done. The last time decent money was spent - I do not know whether Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael was in government - was 20 years ago when the Skibbereen bypass was opened. That was the last time there was what could be called common-sense money used in west Cork. They kicked the ball about last week in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and they kicked it up the country. It was all only pie-in-the-sky talk anyway. There is €1.4 billion and not one brown cent of it will go to west Cork unless we get a few bob for pothole repair.

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