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

I, too, asked the Minister about the local schemes last night and I spent six minutes talking about them. Again, that issue is at the top of my list.

Deputy Ring made a good case for Fine Gael here tonight but I have to remind him that all of the money he is talking about which is being given out has been collected off the taxpayers and off the people who are out early in the morning and who are paying through the nose for gallons of diesel and litres of petrol for fuel to try to keep going. There are paying exorbitant taxes. The Government has angered many people in our county who cannot get planning permission, which is the basic right just to put a roof over your head. Much of Kerry is now a no-go area as far as getting planning permission is concerned. I have asked on several days to have this examined and to control the Planning Regulator because he has our county development plan ruined. Many people just cannot get planning permission and they have paid for it, even though they have paid almost a third of taxes, VAT and levies to build their own house, which they are not being allowed to do.

The Government has people driven mad about this rewetting and culling cows, and it has no appreciation at all. For the Green Party, however, it is wagging the tail and it has no appreciation of our farmers and of what they are going through. The Government will not consider the amount of carbon emissions farmers are already sequestering and is saying this will not be measured until 2027.

Tourism is adversely affected because the Government brought in all of these refugees but it did not get any place for them except hotels.

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