Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is ironic that the cartoon I have fell on the ground. It was sent to me by a friend of mine and it shows a fuel can saying:

Whoever said what goes up must come down wasn't talking about me.

It is ironic that everything in the Government's eyes goes up. Why? Because of inflation. Why does the Government love inflation? Because it means more revenue. How much extra revenue has the Government brought in with the inflation on fuel?

I believe - and we are talking about energy costs - that four 100 ton generators arrived into the port, and one of them is being fitted at the moment in Shannonbridge. I also believe there are three more going to be fitted in Shannonbridge shortly. Four 100 ton fossil fuel generators are coming in to Shannonbridge. Was that not running by itself before the Government decommissioned it? How much has it cost the State to decommission Shannonbridge, and how much is it costing to bring in four 100 ton fossil fuel generators to generate power? We have always heard about putting the cart before the horse. Well, the Government seems to be doing it a lot lately because in everything it seems to do, the cart is in front of the horse and now it is trying to make up ground.

The Government talks about the windfall tax. The Rural Independent Group and I have been talking to the Government about the windfall tax for the last 12 months to two years. It is ironic again that it is tax. I wonder where will the windfall tax be brought back into? The Government has put the custom and excise duty on fuel back up. It is back up now to 50 cent in every euro on petrol, and 46 cent in every litre of diesel. It is very easy to say where we are going to get these windfall taxes. The Government is taxing every person who is working or not working, including anyone who is trying to help the person who is working to let them go to work.

We spoke last night on mortgages. Over 20% of every person's mortgage in this country comes back to the Government in tax. On the building costs, it is 13.5%. On the fitting-out cost, it is 23%. PAYE and PRSI comes back to the Government in tax. These are the people who are building their own houses and not depending on the State for anything. What do we do? We say they have to borrow for the next 25 years, and we tell them to borrow an extra 20% for taxes. A €250,000 mortgage is €320,000 including tax that the Government is taking off them.

A couple who qualifies must pay between €12,000 and €13,000 in PRSI and PAYE contributions under their employment to qualify for the mortgage. When that is worked out over 25 years, it means €320,000 to build a house and not to be a burden on the State. Such people have borrowed a mortgage and 20% of that mortgage goes back to the Government in tax. These are people who are working. They have dependants. What does the Government do? It goes back on the excise duty and when people want to go to work, it wants more tax from them. Do not talk to me about a windfall tax.

Let us look at the nursing home situation. There are small and medium-sized private nursing homes. It costs 20% or 30% more to run a HSE nursing home than it does to run a private nursing home. That is okay; that is taxpayers' money that funds the extra amount required to run those public nursing homes. What happens? Small to medium-sized nursing homes, because of energy costs and everything else, are running at a loss. Any new nursing homes or small nursing homes that want to extend cannot do so because it does not make financial sense. That means enormous nursing homes will institutionalise people when they get older. Those people will not have homely nursing homes with 25 or 50 beds where we can visit our family members locally without having to travel long distances. If there were local nursing homes, the people in them would be in the environment in which they grew up, around their families and friends. Instead, the Government gives extra to its own nursing homes and less to somebody who is providing employment and nursing home care in our areas.

We come then to pyrite and mica. We discussed this issue in the House. The Government has come up with what it will do for people who are stuck with pyrite or mica. However, it would not allow the foundations to be evaluated. You cannot build a new house on old foundations. The foundation of this very Chamber is what we are supposed to build on but no, the Government says we have to go back to the older foundations. I go back to people who want to build their own homes, who have paid tax all their lives on everything from their food to the clothes on their backs and their shoes, and everything else. They have never been dependent on the State. The Government does not look after them. What did the Government do? It brought in another charge on concrete products. That means every person who wants to provide a roof over the heads of their families, without being dependent on the State, will now be charged more tax on a product they are delivering themselves.

The Minister and I will be okay, as will everyone else in this room. However, I worry deeply for my children and everyone else's children. I worry for the grandchildren to come because of what this Government, composed of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, has done. Two of those parties are supposed to be a part of rural Ireland. I have heard them mention rural Ireland recently but they never mentioned rural Ireland until we mentioned it. Rural Ireland will have a message for them at the next election.

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