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

I am glad to get the opportunity to say a few words on this, although my time is short. It appears the Government is deliberately blocking the public from having any voice when it comes to the Government's immigration policy, which is all over the place. This is clearly being dictated to us by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels and we cannot have a debate in here because we are held back from doing so.

I too want to talk about the energy policy we have. We shut down Bord na Móna in the middle of the country when we had no alternative and we have no alternative. We see that Germany, which seems to have common sense all the time about most things, is opening up its coal mines to ensure its people are warm and secure in their homes. It is doing something for its people but this Government is doing nothing only trying to ensure the people will perish with the cold. We had the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, out in the summer telling us we should not be cutting turf but I am glad that where I come from they are burning turf and they have turf to burn. I hope they will be allowed to have it for a long time because there is no alternative coming from the Government. The Government is not helping the people but it is trying to ensure that everything wrong is being done to them by stopping them cutting a bit of turf that never did any harm to anyone. When I see the smoke coming out of Dan Kelleher's chimney at 7 a.m., I am glad that he has a fire to keep himself warm because the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, would not keep him warm.

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