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

-----and I will tell the Minister of State why. First, look at the folly of what is going on in Foynes, where we have mulch coming in from Brazil. There are thousands of tonnes of it and it must be transported up through the country to replace the peat we were producing ourselves. The Minister of State may shake his head because he is ashamed of that fact, which has made a lot of headlines in the last couple of days. I put down parliamentary questions on it and this is not the first ship that has come in. Of course, the Government will take every way it can to try to sweep that under the carpet and deny it is happening, but it is happening.

Peat is coming from Latvia, briquettes are coming from Germany and the mulch is coming from Brazil. Brazil is cutting down the rainforests, mulching them up and transporting that mulch to Ireland for us to use, and we are losing all the related jobs. If the Green Party achieves its ultimate aim of reducing the national herd, we will also end up importing beef from Brazil. It will make farmers and ranchers in Brazil big and shut us down. That is crazy.

I do not like being critical of anybody, but I like being honest and straight in my dealings. Sinn Féin tabled this motion, but it is the same Sinn Féin that supported the Government when the latter wanted to introduce the carbon tax in the first instance. We were opposed to the tax because we knew it would affect weaker and more impoverished people. In particular, it would affect people living in rural Ireland more adversely than it would others. Sinn Féin is now realising this and trying to go back on it, claiming that the party is trying to stop that from happening, but Sinn Féin started it in the first instance along with the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They have made an unmitigated mess and made it expensive for people to live in Ireland.

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