Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No, I am not. It was fadó fadó. One of them was Cathy and one was Kitty. They are all gone to their eternal reward. None of them turned up that night so he said: "I have neither kitty nor a cat tonight. I have nobody but myself." The TII wants everything. It will not build the roads. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is welcome. I will talk to Mary Lou. She will know some of the folklore from Tipperary, her mother being from there as well. The TII will not build the roads. It sterilised a 5 km wide area of it, and you cannot build a hen house. You could hardly put up a flag on the day of a match, but we cannot even go to see a match now, or see it on television with the corporate engagement we have. It is shocking what the Government is presiding over here. It is a move away from the rural people. Deputy O'Donoghue reminded us of an old woman living beside De Valera's house in Bruree, and all the old people we represent. They lived in hovels that they built. They reared big families of ten, 12 and 14 with no bathrooms. Now they have four bathrooms in big houses and no children. If the Government got its way, there would be no people in rural Ireland. We want to say proudly that we are supporting people living in rural Ireland. We are not for breaking any laws. We want sensible moratoria to be given to people for log cabins. They are all quality buildings that are sustainable and environmentally friendly. The Minister should give us a chance in terms of the moratorium.

I can remember when the Government closed all the bedsits in Dublin. It was not this Government, it was a different one. It was an act of lunacy, because thousands of people who had roofs over their heads did not have them the night after, all due to the bad work of this legislation. It is the same people on the left who were clamouring that these were not suitable. They were covering people, and they had roofs over their heads. We have all the legislation and the pious platitudes. The objections to all the houses by certain people in here are sickening. They do not want the Kitty nor the Cathy. They do not want anything anywhere because they do not understand the value of work. They do not understand what a shovel is. They do not know what a foundation is. They do not know what mica is. They do not know what a block is. They do not know what a roof tile is, and they do not care either, but we care. Just because some of us might be involved in construction we get demonised as cowboys and as having self-interest. Our interest is to house our people - a noble gesture that Liam Lynch died for 100 years ago – and Michael Collins, Pádraig Pearse and all our forefathers – the right to self-determination, a home and to live and to eke out a living on our land and small farm. As Deputy McNamara said, 40 acres of land is not viable any more. It is to hell or to Dublin now - not to Connacht - in here with all the problems that we have.

To top it all, we decided to open the borders and bring in a further 200,000 or 250,000 people. My goodness; the men in the white coats would have come here long ago if things had not changed. The Government closed all the mental institutions. They would have a lot of us gone out of this place and put somewhere that we would be taught to think of the unanticipated consequences of legislation that is passed here, clamoured for, and the folly of it all.

Let the people of rural Ireland who are able to do so build their houses. They are not asking the State for anything, only for a document, as Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said, to give them planning. I am not talking about reckless planning. Give them a moratorium. Allow them to house themselves. Allow them contribute to their schools, GAA clubs, soccer clubs, churches, mass meetings or whatever of political parties. The Government will not have many supporters because they will have nowhere to live and they will not be home when people come to canvass. Those who will be at home will be waiting in the long grass, when it grows, and they will be waiting for the Government and the peann luaidhe will be sharp and uimhir a náid will be put down after their names.

See this speech in context