Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak this evening. I want to clarify something in relation to the carbon tax. A question was raised here yesterday about the carbon tax by Deputy Doherty. It was stated that there was to be a vote held last night. There was no vote. I never voted for the carbon tax. Subsequent to that, another Sinn Féin Member put up a question on his phone to see what way would the Healy-Raes vote on the carbon tax last night. They knew as well as I knew that there would be no vote on the carbon tax last night. They knew that, as part of the nine-year budget passed in 2021, the increases would come in last night at midnight, as was ordained in 2021. Clearly, I did not vote for those increases at that time. It is for other Members or parties to clarify what they did, but at no time since I came up here in 2016 did I vote for the carbon tax. Some Members did at the start and for a long time, but then they changed their minds and were sorry for voting for it.

I thank the Ministers for many of the things brought forward in the budget. I especially thank them for the reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector. I would have liked it to be brought forward earlier, but it is coming. I hope all the hospitality people in Killarney and around the Ring of Kerry will be able to hang on until that materialises to help them.

I also thank the Ministers for increasing the cap for the carers. That is what both myself and my brother Michael looked for, because carers do tremendous work. Many of them give up their lives and dedicate them to family members or other people who need help and who would not survive without it.

It is the nature of politics that we have to continue to ask. I have asks in relation to people who want to pay for and build houses themselves. We need to do much more for working-class people, because highly educated, talented people are emigrating. The thing making them go is they cannot see how they can come up to the mark of buying or building a house for themselves. We could help them in places like Kerry. We could do something about these clauses that stop them getting planning permission on sites local to them or their own sites. If you are a farmer's son or daughter, you will get planning, but not if you are out the country and want to get a site next door to you. You are not able to get that. I have highlighted this here several times.

There are other planning restrictions. There are over 100 km of national primary and secondary roads in Kerry that you are not allowed to get planning permission to exit onto, even though there are entrances there already that were created by other family members in the past. That needs to be changed. It was brought introduced in 2012 when Leo Varadkar was Minister for transport. That has to be got rid of.

We have another situation in Kerry where the new bypass is to be built. Much of the land around Killarney, going through Kilcummin and Farranfore and all that side of the country, has been sterilised. Farmers' sons and daughters cannot get planning permission in those areas. Will the Ministers look into those things?

There is a big hold-up in the building of 160 or so houses in Kenmare. There are two planning applications, the results of which are to be known shortly. Councillors are citing that they do not have water. The Government has allocated money to Irish Water. I ask that this money be allocated right away to Kenmare in order to enhance water supply. No houses have been built by the private sector in Kenmare for over 20 years. First, we did not have the sewerage system. More than €40 million has been provided to improve that. The obstacle has been cleared, but now we find out that they have no water. They have known this for over ten years. I appeal to the Ministers with responsibility for water to take action in order that these 169 houses can be built in Kenmare. That is the number between the two applications. It is being held up. I ask the Ministers to get involved. I am pleading with them. People are leaving Kenmare because they cannot buy or build houses there.

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