Danny Healy-Rae urges better pay for Kerry rescue teams

Thank you very much, Kahir. First of all, I'm glad to get the chance and thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very good motion, a sensible motion. And first of all, Minister, I want to congratulate you on making a comeback to the junior minister rank. And I think I would have been the first to say to you that morning when we were wondering who the new junior minister was. As I said, are you in line? What's happening, Frankie? We wish you the best. Look, this is, like I said, a very important issue and especially in a place like Kerry that has such mountains like the Maclecuddy Reeks and Magneton Mountain. And we have topography, I believe, that doesn't and that no other county has or maybe not many counties have. And we have, then we have the Atlantic Ocean, Poundish on three or four sides because we have three peninsulas, the Ivaraya Peninsula, the Baira Peninsula and the Dingle Peninsula. Massive miles of coastline and it's grand and lovely in the summertime and then, you know, and we must appreciate all our coast guards all around our coast and in the, you know, the beautiful beaches where people go swimming and boating and all the things that they do. And I feel of the attractions of the many that we have in Kerry. But often people do get into trouble. Great swimmers, great boatmen, different things happen. And then we have people from all over the world coming to climb the Maclecuddy Reeks and we depend on, if something happens, we depend on the Kerry Mountain Search and Rescue Team in a big way, Minister. And I don't believe that they are fully compensated for the skills and the efforts that they put in to save people's lives. And like has been said here, you can't put a price on anyone's life. And it hurts me. And I know you can't be happy with it either, Minister, when you hear that these people in their ambulance, that they're only being paid for 16 hours and that they're there 24 hours. I certainly don't, I didn't know that. And I'm glad that it has been aired here inside because that's not fair. When people are there and when they're waiting for the call and they have to be ready to go in a minute, at any precise moment, they should be remunerated, Minister. And look, I don't know how much you know about them, but you'll bring the message to government and I don't mind which department it is. You'll have to put your heads together and work together to ensure that these people are paid properly. They have massive skills and they put in a mighty campaign to save one or more lives and we depend on them so much in a place like Kerry. I want to thank all our harbour masters in our piers and harbours all around Kerry. As I said, we have many. And then the Villinsha lifeboat. And I've known many of the skippers of the Villinsha lifeboat back over the years. And indeed, Paddy Gallagher was from Actel Island and he finished up in Villinsha Island, but he was the skipper of that lifeboat. And we remember the sea floor disaster when so many fine men were lost in the Baira Peninsula, the Khmer River. And the terrible time it was. I remember the Sunday morning after it happened, Mass in Kilgarven and everyone was huddled around together because we knew and so many knew those people. But a good few of them lost their lives and I know that the Villinsha lifeboat was involved in and that's when I was only a child. And they have been working since on the different skippers and doing so much great work. And we depend on all those people. And like we have to keep saying, you can't put a cost in the life. Something, some innocent person comes to the Macklacoddy reeks and the fog fills in or whatever and they get lost and they get stuck up in benches where the sheep couldn't get out of. And luckily many of them have been saved by the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team. And it hurts me also, Minister, to hear that they have to actually fundraise to keep themselves together and to keep their gear together and to keep trained and to keep active and to be there when they are called. We remember too, therefore, that all the people put in in the Khmerary when Michael Gane was missing. Sadly, we know he's dead. And we appreciate all the people, including the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team. And offers came from Abbey Field from the search and mountain rescue team that they have there and all the people that, you know, time didn't matter to them. They kept searching and looking everywhere, down Miles Gap and into bog holes and different places. And we appreciate all the people that put in a voluntary effort. We must congratulate and thank those people too for the great help they have done at different times, aside from Michael Gane. And we thank them so much for what they did at that time. That's only the start of the year. I know everyone is saying the year has flown, but it has. But that poor man, we have no answer got him yet. And we're all horting for that. Again, I say about the air ambulance. Don't let them down, Minister. I ask you to take the message to the Government and ensure that what's being asked for here is given. And to say that was a mistake that wasn't happening up until now, because it has been a mistake. Again, I have to say, we have a massive terrain in Kerry. We have grand, scenic places. And as I said, when people come unknowingly and get into trouble, we depend so much on the rescue teams and the air ambulance. And when people get sick and maybe trying to get them out of an awkward place, we depend on the air ambulance to come at short notice and to take them for maybe heart surgery to Dublin or to Cork or Limerick or whatever it is. Because one thing I learned as well, they have to go where the wind won't challenge them as much. We had an accident in Canaan a few years ago. I was there when it happened. And we thought they were going to Cork, but it finished up there to go to Limerick to avail of the help of the wind from that side. And we have to ensure that we have people with expertise that know what they're doing, because you can train people all the way, but they must do a certain amount of probing and ensuring that they're doing the right thing themselves when they're out on a mission. And look, Minister, it is late at night, and I want to thank Sinn Féin again for bringing forward this motion, and I hope that government is listening and will see after them. And I'm appealing that the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team as well gets properly seen after. We depend on them in Kerry so much for to save so many lives. Thank you very much, Minister. Thank you very much.