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

I would like to talk about people in the wet trades such as, for example, block layers, plasterers and people involved in construction. I am speaking in particular about young people in County Kerry. The Minister of State has a great, sound and solid working interest in this. I want him to try every endeavour he can to ensure we will be able to encourage young people to get involved in block laying, plastering and all of the trades it is extremely difficult to get people in at present. For example, getting young people into electrical or plumbing apprenticeships is possible and probable, but it is very hard. We will need plasterers and all types of tradespeople. We have to encourage people and make sure to get back to the system we had long ago, when we had AnCO and different things.

Great work is being done in Killarney and Tralee and I appreciate the efforts the Minister of State, his Department and others are making. I am thankful for that. I am thankful to the people in Kerry who are organising courses. We want to make it attractive for people to get involved in the industry. One thing that will not do that is some of the words we have had to listen to here this evening and with the indulgence of the Chair, I will call some of them out. They were downright bull's wool and rubbish. We listened to words and phrases such as "bogus", "cowboy builders", "cowboy contractors", "excessive and dangerous hours", "legally required hours off", "time to recuperate" and "people being blacklisted". Mother of God Almighty.

Every time certain people mention the word "work", in the same breath they use the word "protesting". What has gone wrong with people wanting to go to work and go on a building site without being worried about being outside the gate protesting? They are glad to go to work. They are working in a safe environment. I am very sorry that there are workplace accidents, but accidents have happened over the history pages and will continue to happen in the future.

In construction, we are operating in one of the most highly regulated sectors of society in Ireland. There are induction courses, every type of CPC and everything that is humanly possible. People have to have their Safe Passe cards. Drivers have to have their tickets. I can show the Minister of State the tickets I have in my pocket, which many other Members will also have. We have them because if we go onto a site tomorrow morning we are not entitled to walk onto it unless we produce our certificate. If we need to service a digger, we have to produce our certificates. That is what we are working in. I am not complaining about it.

When I hear other Members using terms like "bogus", "bogus operators" and "cowboy builders", it is rubbish. The vast majority of builders in Ireland are highly respectable, and the Minister of State knows that. The contractors we have, whether involved in construction, plant hire or whatever else, are highly respectable people. They are giving much-needed gainful employment.

Some Deputies in the House want to talk about protesting and time to recuperate. There is nothing wrong in the world wrong with going away in the morning and spending a day working. Some Deputies in the House seem to be like vampires and need garlic to keep people away. It is insane. They have a hatred of the word "work" because they do not like it. They would rather think of people doing nothing, staying home all day and getting paid to do it. That is not right. It is fine for people who cannot get work and are disabled. We are not doing enough for those people. The people who want to go to work should be encouraged to go to work.

I am glad and grateful that we have great contractors, but we do not have enough of them. Why is that the case? It is because in many cases they were hounded out of business by politicians acting the ape in the House and trying to put them down at every opportunity. Some people cannot stand up here and thank them for the work they are doing and their efforts. They work very hard. In many instances, they pay everybody else and the one person they do not pay is themselves. They are trying to run the show, keep their taxes in order and their noses clean and create more employment.

We have to create an environment in Ireland where we reward work and people who make an effort. I acknowledge the great people who go away every day and put on their boots, go out the door and do a day's work. We thank them for their efforts. It is doing nothing to help them when we hear Deputies raving about nonsense and rubbish, such as time to recuperate. We have the 10 o'clock day and 1 o'clock day and starting and stopping times. That is what people want. There are people here who think they are representing people by talking like that. The majority of the people they are talking about do not want them to be raving with that nonsense.

I am trying to calm down. I had to get that out of my system because of some of the absolute tripe I listened to here over the past couple of hours, when people were raving about absolute nonsense. Getting back to the trades and what we want, there is a situation in Ireland where, thankfully, construction is and will be picking up. I hope that it will and that the grants available will encourage more people to do work. I want old properties to be done up and places coming back into use. It will take people to do that. We want people in all of the different trades. I want to encourage young people in every way possible to get involved in construction. It is a great way of life.

I want young people to get involved in machinery and be lorry, track machine and dumper drivers. We want every type of person like that. They will be trained, taken care of, highly regarded and have a good living and way of life. That is to be encouraged. I ask the Minister of State to do everything possible to try to make it an environment that will be there for those people. He should not listen to the negativity about builders. Where I am from, we had great small builders, many of whom have gone to their eternal reward. They operated out of small vans and built a house or two a year. They were great people. They died and, very sadly, were not replaced. I want such people to come back. We also want larger contractors. Thankfully, in County Kerry we have bigger contractors but we do not have enough of them. We want more of them. They are great in our communities.

I heard people talking about quarries. If they went into a quarry they would not know the first end of a stone from the other end. They would not know what a crusher or loader is, but they are here talking as if they know what they are talking about. All they are doing is raving and going on with nonsense and rubbish. I thank the Minister of State. I ask him to look after young people who want to get involved in this industry.

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