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

I declare that I have an interest in some of the issues I want to raise.

I will begin with tax measures. The one thing this Government is not doing is rewarding people who want to work. There will be people who work very hard and do their best to make a living who will be scratching their heads tonight. They are looking for nothing from this Government, only to work and get on with their lives and they are not being treated well by the Government. The disability sector and section 39 workers have been shouting very loudly and very hard for a long time. They certainly cannot take comfort from this budget either.

The Minister, Deputy McGrath, stated "I am conscious that the price of petrol and diesel for motorists have increased in recent weeks" and went on to say he would defer the final increase in excise duties. He failed to mention that tonight, because of carbon taxes, diesel will rise by 2.5 cent and petrol by 2.1 cent. The Minister also failed to mention the rise in our fuel prices is because he pressed ahead with the two rises in excise duty and the Government continues to take upwards of 56% of the price of a litre of fuel. That is being backed here by every backbencher who is supporting this Government.

On social welfare supports, I and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group asked that a grant of €1,000 be brought back to help people through a bereavement. This was taken away by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in their heyday. The Government failed to take this on board at a time when there was the ability to pay it to people. It refused. Carers save this State thousands and thousands of euro every week, so why will this Government not give them a fair payment? People caring for their loved ones at home do so much work in the home and in keeping their loved ones at home. Our group proposed they receive €350 per week. This would be money well spent by the Government, but unfortunately it is failing again to recognise the good work they are doing.

While the renters' tax credit being increased by €250 to €750 per year is welcome, it would not even cover one month or even half a month's rent in many cases. Some 86% of people who rent houses own one or two properties. Forget for a moment about those who own multiple properties and have them rented out. The 86% provide a much-needed resource in our housing market and people who offer a home to Ukrainians, for example, can get a tax-free payment of €800 per month or €9,600 per year completely tax free. The rent-a-room scheme has been extended to people who live in a local authority house and they can earn €14,000 per year tax free. However, if a person owns one or two properties he or she will get €600 relief in the first year, €800 relief in the second year and €1,000 for the final two years. That is it. Rent, therefore, to people from outside this country and you will get nearly €10,000 tax free but rent to a young Irish couple and you will get €1,000 tax-free. How does that make sense? That certainly was not thought through.

The Labour Party is saying this is a property owners' budget. It is the party that stated it will build 1 million homes. Very mysteriously, it still has not explained how it will manage that. At the same time, its members are continually objecting to houses in their own constituencies. They are serial objectors. Many of the people making speeches here this evening - the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, will be interested in this - and jumping up and down about housing tonight are objecting to thousands and thousands of homes being built in their constituencies. It is one of those things I will never be able to understand. I will never be able to get my head around it. I could name them and point at the seats they sit in. They have objected to 2,800 homes, 3,000 homes and there is one person, a fairly new Deputy, who objected to 5,000 homes being built in a constituency. We would really want all night to figure that one out.

On business, while the increase in the minimum wage is of course great for the person receiving it, the small business that will have to pay it is certainly suffering. The Government has said it will put in place measures to help those businesses, but last night, from Beaufort to Fossa to Milltown to Killorglin, up into Glencar, back to Glenbeigh and down into Cromane, doing my tour of clinics last night, the thing small businesses were telling me was they were going to find it extremely difficult to keep their doors open. This Government is letting businesses down.

I want to quote Dan Horan again. I quoted him on the plinth of the Dáil last week. He is a shop owner in County Kerry. He has a number of small shops throughout Kerry and up into Limerick. He went on Radio Kerry recently and gave a great account of himself. He said if the Government keeps going, small businesses are going to close.

Our group has met with the umbrella group for nursing homes. Nursing homes are closing and it is wrong. There is nothing being done for the small nursing homes. Again, those people are providing a much-needed service in our communities.

I want to speak about farming and fishing. One of our Ministers went seven minutes over time when making his Budget Statement today, despite the good control of our Ceann Comhairle, who always does great work. He let him run on today but no matter how long the Ceann Comhairle let him run on, the one thing he was not going to mention was fishermen or farmers. Quite simply, he does not seem to appreciate, understand or realise that we have strong farming and fishing communities that we are trying to keep going. If they keep going, it will be in spite of this Government and not with its help. The simple fact is that the people on that side of the House really do not care about business people, particularly small business people. They really do not care about farmers and they definitely do not care about fishermen. Until a while ago, when Deputy Michael Collins mentioned fishermen, I had not heard the word in here all day. Whether the Ceann Comhairle had let them go seven minutes or seven hours over time, no one from Government was going to mention fishermen.

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