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

I welcome the chance to talk about this budget. There are a few positive aspects and I welcome them. There are measures for third level students and primary level students but there is nothing whatsoever for secondary students. They have been left out. I welcome the increase for social welfare, for disability payments and for carers but at this juncture I have to say that carers should not be means tested. The devil is in the detail and there is a lot to it.

The first thing is the 13.5% VAT rate. The Government wants to bring that back and hit the tourism sector that we value so dearly down in Kerry. We have a wonderful product in Killarney, around the Ring of Kerry and up into north Kerry. There are wonderful places to see but the Government is hitting and kicking people in the sector at this stage. It is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The thing I am most disappointed about is the people on the road who are paying for petrol and diesel all year. They have been robbed to fund this budget. They have suffered. There is no answer in the world as to how green diesel went from 90 cent up to €1.50 in one jump - in one week. There has been no answer or explanation. This is affecting farmers and people in industry. I have no problem in telling the Ministers that a barrel of crude oil costs less today than it did four years ago. Look at the level of taxation. Is there any shame in the Ministers at all? Just because they are supported by the Greens, they have let them do this to the people of Ireland, the people who elected them continuously over the years. They have forfeited them now for the Green Party.

It is ridiculous. The people were looking up to the Government and hoping. We all thought that the Government would do something for the people in this budget but it has done nothing. It promised in June that excise would be reduced by 15 cent, with a 2 cent reduction on green diesel. The Government left that in place until 28 February. Is it going to increase that again then?

On health, any amount of money that is given to the HSE will be taken but will not result in a proper health service. It was promised that more beds would open in Tralee and at Kenmare hospital but that has not happened. If elderly people get sick now, they have to queue to get a GP. It is ridiculous. GP services have been extended to youngsters but that will make the queues longer. We are suffering immensely from the lack of a home help service. People are being allocated home help but nobody turns up to give them any help. People are not coming. The Government is accommodating the Ukrainians. Could it not train them and use some of them to administer home help to people? Surely it could. When the Irish went abroad, they had to work everywhere they went. We lack consultants in every sector. We take people to the North on buses for procedures on cataracts, with a bus this weekend and two more buses in the next three weeks. Deputy Michael Collins started this service back in November 2017. We have taken 102 bus loads of people north to date.

Some elderly people who cannot hear have to wait for over a year to get hearing tests. I know someone who broke a leg last Saturday. That person is in one of our more prominent hospitals and no plaster has been put on the leg yet. This is Tuesday. One of our group mentioned people with Parkinson's disease earlier. Those people in have been let down. We have no nurses for them.

With regard to electricity charges, the Government said it will do whatever Europe does. Where is the energy regulator? Where is the Minister in charge of the regulator? We could all agree to paying more for electricity charges if it was true that it cost the companies that much more to generate the electricity. We now hear that their profits have tripled but, at the same time, people are being asked to pay. Why does the Government not stop them right now? They will increase their charges next week and during the rest of next month. Why does the regulator not stop them? They are hurting the people and driving them into the ground. I know of one old woman who is afraid to boil the kettle now because she got such a bill. The Government is saying that it will give people €200 now, €200 after Christmas and €200 more after that. That is not enough. The Government is profiting off the backs of these poor people because it is getting more VAT on it.

There is hardly anything for farmers other than a grant for slurry tanks. Most farmers have already bought that kind of equipment. They have built slatted tanks, which are as environmentally-friendly as possible. The Government is doing nothing at all to help with the cost of fertiliser, diesel, electricity, or other materials, spare parts and repairs. The Government is jeopardising food security.

The Government said that it would house everyone under Housing for All. Today, it came along and kicked young fellows who are trying to put a roof over their head in the teeth by putting a 10% levy on concrete. Michael Cronin of Coolcaslagh in Killarney and east Kerry has built many social houses and houses for young fellows right around the county.

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