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

The Rural Independent Group made a series of submissions to this budget which were, by the look of it, rejected out of hand. One of the first proposals was the budget should be rural-proofed. Certainly, this budget has not one shred of rural-proofing written into it. As a matter of fact, it is an anti-rural Ireland budget. I will tell the Minister of State how it is going to affect the people and how it is going to put more cars on our roads, which is going to affect our environment far more than at present. I was talking to a private operator, West Cork Connect, who had the decency and respect for the people of west County Cork to take several buses to Cork every day. We are talking about three or four buses, maybe, from Skibbereen and three to four from Bantry, passing through Dunmanway, Drimoleague, Ballineen and Enniskeane, all the way to Cork. On the other side, there is Clonakilty-Skibbereen, Rosscarbery and Bandon. It was costing the operator €110 to fill the bus to fill the bus every day. It is taking loads of cars off the road. This is exactly the dream the Government has; it is what its intentions were.

It used to cost €110 but in the past 12 months it has risen to €165. He is wondering if it will pay at all but if he pulls the plug, what happens? Cars, cars, cars and this is where the Government is going wrong with its carbon tax. All the carbon tax does is hit rural Ireland. That is all it does. It generates a pocketful of money so that beautiful projects up here in the capital can be sorted out but, as I keep saying, we cannot keep carrying Dublin on our back. It will not and cannot work. The people of rural Ireland are livid about this budget because it was nothing but an attack on them. Imagine a jump from €110 to €165 for one trip. That has to be fed back to the customers, the people travelling on the bus. The bus operator is now in a difficult situation because the Government's carbon tax dream is going to scoot his costs up through the roof and I would say he is going to pull the plug if this keeps going. I do not know where the Government is going. It is going to force more cars back onto the road and cause a far bigger crisis.

On the 50% rebate for students, one would think that everybody should welcome that. I would welcome it but the problem is that we do not have public transport down our way. The devil is in the detail because if students are not on a PSO route, they do not qualify. This is another attack on rural Ireland. The young people who travel on the Luas and the DART, and I do not begrudge them one bit, will qualify for the 50% rebate. However, the man I spoke about a while ago, who carries 70% of the young people leaving west cork from places like Bantry, Skibbereen, Bandon, Kinsale and Clonakilty, will not qualify for this. I presume this is because the Minister for Transport and his colleagues at the Cabinet table from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael forgot that rural Ireland should have been included. Why were these people not included? I raised this with the Tánaiste earlier. Maybe I speak a bit of Japanese or something because he did not know what I was on about. He told me he was going to talk to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, but this has nothing to do with him. This is the responsibility of the Minister for Transport. This is his mistake. This is a shocking and glaring mistake and this is an attack on the young people of my constituency and many other constituencies. Apparently there is no PSO route in Wexford either so the young people there will get no advantage from this. If you are a Dublin Deputy, this will suit you fine and perhaps the Government is trying to bring them on board.

The Tánaiste said earlier that farm organisations should not worry because the Government will give them something in 2023. That is kicking the can down the road, of course. Kick the can down the road for the usual lads, the farmers of rural Ireland. The Government will give them a kick in the arse and expect that will sort the whole matter out. It will sort them out in 2023. How are they going to survive? Somebody asked earlier if there is a scheme for farmers who are going out of business. It would want to be a massive scheme because they are running out of business. The Government is leading them down one road. They will not get a brown cent extra in 2022. They have been left there but the Tánaiste said that they should not worry; the Government gave a few extra bob for farm assist. That is it now. I will go back to west Cork and tell the farmers on the way home that I have great news for them and that farm assist is their future according to the Tánaiste. I can tell Deputies from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that if they go back to their constituencies and tell farmers that, they will be run from the doors. That is what they are facing. The livelihood of fishermen was also forgotten in this budget. They were forgotten about.

I could speak for the next hour but I have only 30 seconds left. I want to touch on some of the issues raised by the Minister of State, including activity in regard to the protection of rivers. I fully respect that but the biggest offenders in the State in terms of polluting rivers are local authorities and Irish Water which have not resolved 34 sewerage systems in towns and villages, with raw sewage seeping into rivers. I could take the Minister of State around the most beautiful part of Ireland, west Cork, and show him just that.

On the issue of monuments, he should remember that the centenary of the death of Michael Collins falls on 22 August 2022. A monument must be put in place in the capital city to commemorate the greatest Irish man who ever lived. That must be put on the top of the Government's agenda. We must show respect to one of the greatest people who ever stood in this nation.

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