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

The Minister knows exactly and personally what I think of her. She knows she is highly regarded in places like Portmagee in County Kerry where she is held in the highest of respect. The only problem is when we are talking about the rest of her colleagues. We have Minister for roads and transportation who does not like building roads, bypasses or bridges. The Green Party members have already held up numerous major infrastructural projects which we want to go ahead with in this country and, to be honest, their whole ethos is anti-rural Ireland. Yesterday, the Government had a very proactive person like the Minister in attendance and like the previous speaker who spoke from the Government side, the former Minister, Deputy Ring. The only thing that is wrong with Deputy Ring at present is that he is not a current Minister because he was a good Minister when he was in office, which I will acknowledge any day of the week. We need people, however, who have an understanding of rural Ireland. Unfortunately, there are people on the Government benches who do not understand that.

I make one very special plea on behalf of people in Kerry, which is for the local improvement schemes. I thank Deputy Ring for what he did with local improvement schemes. In our county, for example, we have such a long list that there are people on it who will be waiting not for five or ten years but for 15 or 20 years before their road is actually done. That last piece of road up to a person’s house is the most important road in the whole country to that person because wherever they are going. they will have to travel on that piece of road. I plead with the Minister because there is something like approximately €10 million. I am wasting my time asking the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it because he would not understand the question when asked by me. I am asking the Minister present to try to use her influence to direct more money into the local improvement scheme roads programme for places like County Kerry so that the people living in those areas can look forward to seeing their roads tarred sooner rather than later and that they might be alive when the roads will be tarred.

See this speech in context