Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join with others to pass my sympathies to Bridget on the sad passing of Pat. It is difficult for her and it is a difficult time coming up to Christmas as well. Our thoughts are with her.

I agree with Senator Seery Kearney and others on Commencement matters. Senator Boyhan was correct in saying that it is more about the content than the people. He is correct because there are some Cabinet Ministers who are very good to come in here. There are other Cabinet Ministers who I suspect would nearly need directions to find the Seanad if they wanted to come in for Commencement matters. However, it is the content that is the most important thing. I tabled a Commencement matter yesterday on Golden National School. The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, was not there and her Department gave a response. Almost the whole first page of it was a copy and paste of the homepage of Golden National School’s Facebook page. That is not the response it needs. The response it needs is detail on what it is asking, not information it has put up on its Facebook page.

Not to advise the acting Leader, because he is a much more experienced politician than I am and at a much higher level, but from my experience with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, if one keeps shouting long enough, he will come to sense and change his mind. I found that with the N24. Therefore, the acting Leader should keep pushing on that ring road. It affects more people than only those in Galway, because I know that when people in Tipperary make decisions about going to Galway, one of the factors that deters them sometimes is the traffic going in. That is a serious point; I do not make that jokingly.

With 20 seconds left, I will get the point that I wanted to speak on, which is a very serious one. There are an awful lot of local authorities at the moment that are being put under severe pressure by their chief executives and officials to raise rates on businesses because of the lack of income or the challenges they have in relation to costs throughout the year. I am not denying councils have rising costs and things such as that. Some councils have raised property tax and some have not. Now chief executives are telling councillors to raise rates. Everyone is affected by the cost of living. No one is more affected by the cost of living than businesses. In the business sector, no one is affected by the cost of living more than small businesses. It is madness to raise rates on businesses-----