Danny Healy-Rae: Demands USC Abolished, Slams Government Spending
Danny Healy-Rae urged the abolition of the Universal Social Charge (USC), calling it punitive and unfair. He accused Fianna Fáil and the Greens of breaking promises to scrap the USC and criticised government spending priorities, citing over five billion on immigrants and unclear climate action costs.
He said the USC was introduced in a time of national crisis and should have been removed once the country recovered, arguing the charge takes from everyone and is particularly unjust for lower earners.
He recalled promises by Fianna Fáil to abolish the USC and accused successive partners, including the Greens, of abandoning earlier principles to secure government positions and share the spoils of office.
He questioned government expenditure choices, naming "over five billion" spent on immigrants and saying there is no clarity on climate action spending. He also referenced multiple taxes, noting his group supported the carbon tax while objecting to the overall tax burden.
He criticised local decisions that he says hamper farming and road safety, citing narrowed sections of the Rock Road and the road to Guinea Willa, blocked drains, and measures that make roads more dangerous and constrain land drainage and productivity.
Call to scrap the USC
He said the USC was introduced in a time of national crisis and should have been removed once the country recovered, arguing the charge takes from everyone and is particularly unjust for lower earners.
Broken political promises
He recalled promises by Fianna Fáil to abolish the USC and accused successive partners, including the Greens, of abandoning earlier principles to secure government positions and share the spoils of office.
Spending and taxation criticisms
He questioned government expenditure choices, naming "over five billion" spent on immigrants and saying there is no clarity on climate action spending. He also referenced multiple taxes, noting his group supported the carbon tax while objecting to the overall tax burden.
Local infrastructure and farming impacts
He criticised local decisions that he says hamper farming and road safety, citing narrowed sections of the Rock Road and the road to Guinea Willa, blocked drains, and measures that make roads more dangerous and constrain land drainage and productivity.
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Transcript
to get a chance to talk about this amendment and and and the usc and first of all we all remember or i do anyway when this usc was introduced the country was in a desperate state and of course i was brought up by my father and he taught me a lot of things thankfully and as many of you might know i gave day and night with him from the day i started working till the day he departed in in 2014. day and night we milked the cows together we drove the machines together we went to meetings in the evenings together we we went everywhere together but amongst one of the most important things that he taught me was to keep your word and if you haven't got the word he said you don't have much at all no matter what you have in in assets or whatever if you don't have a word you have nothing at all fianna fall at that time promised that they would get rid of the usc charge when the country was out of uh trouble we still have it it is a very punitive text it is affecting everyone and you see especially now when we hear fellows over here saying that the country is awash with money but i know that uh that money doesn't fall down onto the sky but i don't know what's happening here now because i remember a time when they will say from 15 to 20 or sometime like that um we had the bob at all for nothing not for a road or a bridge a sewer scheme nothing at all everything was in a standstill but next thing all of a sudden uh cobalt came there was all kinds of money bill next thing um the the the the waters came there's plenty money for everything and when you see over five billion being spent on immigrants when you see there's no amount it no clue at all as to what money is being spent in climate action and when you see the ridiculous things that have been done stop us of uh cleaning our rivers blocking drains even that fell is a slave that for to drain their land to make it more productive and then we have a scenario now they're even narrowing roads we give all our lives aspiring to widen roads and to make them safer what are they doing now in places like the rock road and up to sparrow the road to guinea willa narrowing the roads now by the way to slow down the traffic well i never have they're highly dangerous now there's no one open the footpath of the site away in the rock road no one travels it because we can't get out of it and get onto it this is the ridiculous things that i'm being heckled there from behind but plenty money to fellas if they curtail their farm work of food production these are the ridiculous things uh that are going on and at the same time he promised and you're all the one now it was a different time going back he sold he sold to your souls he buried them in the ground when he joined finigale first of all and when the two both of he joined the greens he buried them down deeper i mean any policy or any aspiration that he had forget about get a different name for the the the finigale and and finna fall and and and and green government now that has been in power for the last four years get rid of that name because you're all bittering the name of what he stood for before because he don't stand for anything now only to ensure that he get the positions of government whether it is teacher tarnished the ministers get his money divide up the spoils between whoever they are and their policies in run all right but what i am getting at account called is he promised as soon as the country would get in his feet that he'd abolish the usc charge i'm asking now to stand here word i and honor what was said by by the remnants of what was there at that time honor the word that they gave that this usc charge will be scrapped altogether because it's very unfair it is very unjust no matter how much or how little uh and especially how little your earning that's taken off the top i know tax and everything else then i know for the charge with carbon tax and every other kind of attacks and and and and the most to be voted for here inside except our little group we all voted for the the the the carbon tax and he said one actually one actually enough what do you know should you don't know you don't you don't know whether or not is a baby is it a boy or a girl i don't try to tell and who tell you us here then well it's the truth and he talked it loud i'm not i didn't make it up because we'll talk to do it's the truth but if you're crazy i i i i withdraw what is it for the for the individual it's it's the truth i'm content