Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

On the programme for Government, I listened with interest to the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, saying the reason we would not go into Government with Independent Ireland was our climate plan. I am amazed that he went into Government with Independents who had no policies put in place. That is astonishing. It looks like they wrote them on the back of an A4 page a couple of days before the formation of the Government to cover Deputy Martin's back. It is astonishing that he really did not look at our policies because if he did, he would see a reference to freezing and reviewing all fuel taxes. Obviously, that is the carbon tax. We did not say it would be withdrawn completely. We just said "freeze" because people are suffering at this time. Deputy Martin did not understand that, and he does not seem to understand or recognise that people are suffering on the ground.

We proposed to abandon the unachievable and destructive net zero target. We know where that is going at this present time; it is going nowhere. It was a green agenda that caused serious destruction to this country and it cannot be achieved. Making Ireland a global leader in green tech came out in our policies, as did no longer following ineffective and often harmful policies that are not fit for purpose. The Taoiseach did not read that, did he? We proposed to ensure climate action does not destroy Irish food. We have concerns about the Mercosur deal. We also have concerns about the nitrates directive. We see how many thousands of cattle are being destroyed in this country. It is astonishing. All of a sudden, we have an epidemic of TB that is there forever and a day but it is a handy way, in my view, to get rid of animals. It is a backdoor system of destroying Irish agriculture and farmers. We wanted to put those proposals before the Taoiseach. He was not interested, which is fair enough. He is entitled to that. He has gone with no policies because he can get a deal across the line with ministerial positions or whatever. That is fine.

However, look at the issue of a 9% VAT rate. I am not very clear about the 13% VAT rate going to 9% but it is part of the programme for Government. I asked the Taoiseach last week when that will happen and if it will be straight away. I have not got a straight answer, so we are still in a crux, with 612 businesses having gone bust over the last 12 months. They are cafés, restaurants or whatever, and it does not seem to resonate within Fianna Fáil. Fine Gael is supposed to be arguing with Fianna Fáil that it is interested in doing it.

Look at the housing plan. I look at all the housing plans and listen to all the predictions from Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The whole thing was dreaming. They were leading the people astray because they could not deliver. The programme for Government will not deliver because the infrastructure is not there. Deputy O'Donoghue explained that in detail and there is no better person to do so. The infrastructure is not there, so we cannot deliver the houses. The Labour Party has promised 1 million houses. I do not what Sinn Féin or the Government has promised but none of those promises are achievable. Ask the main developers in this country what is wrong with the country. It is infrastructure, whether sewerage, water or electricity. We cannot deliver, end of story, but we will keep pouring out figures.

Independent Ireland were the only party to say we would not give any figures on how many houses would be delivered in this country. We were the only party to stand by the principle of not making fools of the people. Every other party in this Dáil made fools of the people because they could not deliver and they did not have their homework done. We were criticised about that. I have a lot of issues with the programme for Government but we will deal with those at a later stage.

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