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

I welcome the chance to talk about this amendment and the USC. First, I remember this USC was introduced when the country was in a desperate state. I was brought up by my father who taught me many things, thankfully. As many Members might know, I spent my days and nights with him from the day I started working until the day he departed in 2014. We milked the cows together, drove the machines together and went to meetings in the evenings together. We went everywhere together. One of the most important things he taught me was to keep my word. He said that if you have not got your word, you do not have much at all. No matter what you have in assets, if you do not have your word, you have nothing at all. Fianna Fáil at that time promised it would get rid of the USC charge when the country was out of trouble. We still have it. It is a punitive tax that affects everyone, especially now, when we hear Members saying that the country is awash with money.

I know that money does not fall from the sky. I remember a time from about 2015 to 2020 or thereabouts, when we had no money for anything, not for a road, a bridge or a sewage scheme. We had money for nothing. Everything was at a standstill. All of a sudden, Covid-19 came and there was money for all kinds of things. Then came the water scheme, there is money for everything. We see over €5 billion being spent on immigrants. We see there is no clue as to how much money is being spent on climate action. We see the ridiculous things that have been done, stopping us from cleaning our rivers, blocking drains that people slaved at to drain their land to make it more productive. We have a scenario now whereby they are narrowing the roads. We gave all our lives aspiring to widen roads to make them safer. Now, in places such as the Rock Road and up the Spa Road to Gneevgullia, they are narrowing the roads in order to slow down the traffic. They are highly dangerous now. No one travels the footpath or the cycleway on the Rock Road because they cannot get out of it nor get onto it. These are the ridiculous things-----

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