Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Independent Group for sharing time with our group to speak to this issue and, in particular, Deputy McNamara for accommodating it. In the spirit of co-operation, it is great.

I have always had great respect for the Minister of State but I do not like to see the Government telling us about the 66 actions it is going to take. If it wants to reform insurance, it should look at no more than ten actions it could take. Whenever I see reports with 60, 70 or sometimes 100 recommendations, I know nothing will be done. We have more regulators in this country than we have fine days, and it is a shame to see the price gouging that is going on and the way people are being destroyed.

Take the example of thatched houses. I beg the Acting Chairman’s indulgence to allow me to give a bit of a lecture on green policies often raised by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in the context of his eco-friendly buildings. They will be very familiar to older people, such as my sean-mháthair and the Minister of State’s sean-mháthair. If he goes to the Nire Valley, where there are still a few of them left, he will see them. Those people had eco-friendly houses well before the Minister was so much as a bad thought in his father’s mind. They had small windows and a thatched roof kept them warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and now we have to knock down everything. Thatched house associations are pleading with us. Thatched houses have all been listed, and rightly so for many of them but many other owners of them did not want their houses to be listed, and now they cannot get insurance. What kind of a farce is that? There was a lovely thatched pub in the middle of the road in Béal Átha Lúbaigh, known as Keating’s. The proprietor passed away and the sister was on her own, so she closed the door. It was a pity the pub was imithe. Because the pub is thatched, the daughter cannot insurance on it as a house.

This affects mortgages, all aspects of people’s lives and everything else. We need to do something about thatched houses because the Government is compelling people to keep their homes thatched and in good repair, a scheme I would support if the Government gave them support but it does not. It gives them only a pittance with the heritage grants, and then it will not allow them to get insurance. What kind of a Government have we? I recently flew out from Cork Airport and got through security in four minutes. I asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform why the Government cannot direct some of the planes from Dublin to Cork and was told the airlines dictate where the planes go. It seems everybody is dictating things except for the Government. Why does it not close up shop here in Leinster House, get its knapsacks and go walking on the hills and mountains and let the cowboys who are reigning here run the show? It is shocking.

The insurance industry is taking on plant-hire contractors. I am one myself, I should declare. To be taking on these community groups is shocking. We are going to kill our culture and heritage. We should have a pattern day in Newcastle. It has been part of our heritage for generations. Examples have been given from all over the country and it was mentioned during the debate in the context of Dublin city and everywhere else. They are all being stopped because they cannot afford insurance. A drastic change is being cast over Ireland in a deep, dark plume of fog, whereby we cannot do anything but take more medicine, much of it green, AdBlue or whatever you want to put into it, and we cannot live our lives in peace and harmony with our neighbours and help one another in the spirit of meitheal.

This is what is going on in every business. A person cannot get a bouncy castle for a child’s communion or whatever. I heard Deputy Richmond say this is tough and that he would not say anything to insurance companies, but I would because they have been milking the system and the cow for far too long. The Government is stopping farmers milking cows but it will not stop these people milking citizens. It is farcical and the Government has it all upside down. It is an upside-down world and the Government is serving masters who are not the electorate of Ireland. It serves global masters. The Acting Chairman is a new Teachta Dála and I am not saying it to him but instead am talking about Cabinet Ministers. I refer not so much to his party leader but, my goodness, to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Ministers for Finance and Foreign Affairs. It is from Bilderberg to the World Health Organization, WHO, and whatever else. It is about anything of interest rather than our country here.

What about the British warship that spent a week in the Port of Cork last week? Did we invite that into our waters? What about the French and what they are doing at the moment upsetting the ocean floor and so on, given all we hear about ecology and everything else? It seems to be a reign of terror by anybody on the people. The Government can stop us all doing anything, whether driving the car or plugging in anything. If we had shorter showers and salad baskets on the windows - you name it – we would be fine. It is all “slow down” and everything else. It is about curtailing, containing, beating down and browbeating our people.

I have a message. The Tipperary people rose up in the troubled times and fought for freedom. Breen and Treacy rescued Seán Hogan and we are not going to take much more of this. Liam Lynch was shot in the Knockmealdown Mountains. The people cannot take it. They cannot live and or even eke out a living, given the price of petrol, insurance, NCT tests and everything else the Government puts on top of them. Everything is a racket. I have no problem with the NCT to test the safety of chassis, tyres and everything else but when we see the reasons cars fail, it is a money racket. The Government should contain that cash cow and let farmers who want to milk cows to feed the people work away.

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