Danny Healy-Rae criticises budget over carers, energy and housing

Thank you very much, Cloncola. I'm glad to get the opportunity to talk on this budget today which has been awaited by many people around the country to see if they would benefit from it. And I suppose all of us here inside might do it differently but I suppose you have to go by the amount of money you have to spend and it's the way the choices you make to spend it in is what we have to go through. I suppose there are many things that are welcome and there's a good few things that I'm disappointed with as well, Minister. I suppose we'll start with the capitation grant there for the schools. We welcome that because we know many principal teachers fooling things themselves and that's not fair and they have been very good and I know it has happened in Kerry. The carers alone and we as a group asked very hard for the abolishing of the means test for the carers. You're committed to doing it on a fair basis I would have preferred if it had been implemented all in one go because those people are vital for the people they're caring for first of all and they're doing a tremendous work for the state in seeing after people that need care. And it shouldn't be treated as social welfare payment as carers are working very hard day and night taking care of their loved ones and saving the state billions. Electricity costs. Nothing has been done for the ever increasing cost of electricity and I have it said here inside Minister day after day since Borna Mona was abolished in 2020 or there around the cost of electricity has gone up day after day. And it doesn't come down and I wonder where the energy regulator is. Are he there at all? I don't think he is. And elderly people are afraid to turn on the heating because of the cost of electricity and are suffering perishing in the cold. Costs have gone through the roof. People are in fear of having their electricity turned off as they cannot afford to pay their bills. Many people are behind paying their bills. The running costs of small businesses with electricity, the cost of insurance rates, water charges and staff and while we welcome the minimum wage to be increased for the low paid workers, but the government can't claim any part of this because the employer has to pay the extra employment costs. And it's not costing the government a penny. And we have to remember that. The working person, I'm very disappointed because as I said here last week, the working class people, we seem to be doing very little, not enough for them at all. And I attended a party last Friday week where 10 local people, boys and girls, grand boys and girls from the age of around 24 or 5 to 31 or 2, they were having a party because they're all leaving, going to Australia before Christmas. And I'm very sad and hurt about that because they had great jobs. They were highly educated. They were a real asset to our country. And we can't afford to lose those kind of people. Their parents went through a lot. They went through a lot themselves to get themselves properly educated. But the main reason they're going, Minister, is because they can't find themselves ever being able to purchase a new home in Ireland or in Kerry. They can't build one because of the planning restrictions. And there's no need for that. Those issues could be addressed. I mean, give them planning. There was a mention about legalising granny flats or building onto the back of houses. I'm wondering where is that, Minister? And you see, these working people go out early in the morning and they work nights and they continue to pay all the costs, continue to pay their taxes, high fuel costs to get to work and nothing in return from the government. I don't think it is fair. They don't qualify for a medical care benefit in any way. The working people are getting disheartened. And many say to me they would be better off at home by the fire drawing some kind of a payment. Because as they are, they have nothing left at the end of the week and they don't qualify for anything. They say, and that isn't right, Minister. They are saying that they'd be better off not working. And when you hear that, it's disappointing because the work ethic has and is in the Irish people and they should be rewarded for it. While I welcome the fuel allowance for those families on income supplement who now will qualify for fuel allowance. And I've asked this before of Heather Humphries when she was Minister. I asked why those on benefits who have paid their fair share of taxes still are not eligible for fuel allowance. Job seekers benefit, those don't qualify. Illness benefit, maternity benefit. Why is this the case? A person at home sick is not eligible for fuel allowance. A mother with a young baby is not eligible for fuel allowance. This is very unfair. There is very little in the budget for farmers who have increasing costs. I see the increase for the acre scheme. But the problem with that is they are not being paid in time, Minister. And go back to 2023 when people were supposed to be paid. They are still not even paid today as we are talking. I can't understand that. I welcome that. And farmers, 20 million extra for 17,000 sheep farmers. I welcome that. And there is 85 million for TB. Minister. Minister, I'm asking, will he do something about the TB? We're overrun with badgers and deer and they'll spread it. And he can vaccinate badgers all right, but he won't vaccinate the cattle. And why can't we vaccinate the cattle against the TB? And get rid of it for once and for all. They're going down all around me. East Kerry, South Kerry, even Kilgallen. I have news of more people going down there today. Something will have to be done, Minister. Tis food they're producing. Tis important to each and every one of us. People that have never been in a farm. It's important for those to have food and tis expensive enough, but if we'll have to import it, all of it, then we'll know what the cost is. I welcome the VAT reduction on the apartments. We certainly need to build more apartments and more housing. And especially the people that have been asking about, they're also asking about, they get a first-time buyer's grant to buy a new house or to build a new house. They're still first-time buyers when they're buying a second-hand house. Could that grant not be extended to those? Maybe you think of it, Minister, because it is important that those people, and I did say to you that people are leaving our shores mainly for to put a house, a roof over their heads, because they can't see themselves ever doing it in this country. So I'm asking you to at least consider that to be something for those people, that they could buy a second-hand home and get the same assistance as if they were buying a new home. I'm kind of glad, in a way, that Deputy Pierce Doherty mentioned me here today in the Chamber earlier on when he was speaking, but he was incorrect in what he said, because he said that I voted for the carbon tax, and in any day that I was ever inside here, I never did. But Sinn Féin did, but maybe he's forgetting about it, and maybe he would have been better advised to run for the President or some office like that, where he would have someone going around with him, reminding him of what he did say and what he didn't say, and what he did do and what he didn't do, because I didn't vote for the carbon tax. I'm paying more for carbon than any other expense that I have, and that's the God's gospel truth about it. I didn't interrupt you at any time, and I won't interrupt you when you're talking, but I am telling the truth, and I will do that in spite of anyone interrupting me. The facts are I never voted for it, and that taxes could be in tomorrow morning without any vote here tonight. There was no vote, there's no vote about it tonight, and to go ahead in the morning because he voted for it before, and that's the God's gospel truth. Sorry, Deputy, stop interrupting the Deputy. I'm very disappointed with the way some of the carbon taxes spent when I see, in the name of active travel, the road being narrowed way out of Killarney, coming into Killarney, and the footpaths are now wider than the road. The carriageway and two wide vehicles are having serious trouble passing at Fossil, where the great cliffers come from, that show, Croke Park in the middle of the summer. That's where they come from, that side of the country, but sadly our road has been narrowed in the name of active travel and climate change. I ask you what has the narrowing of the road to do in Fossil with the weather. It has the God's thing in the world to do with changing the weather, or keeping the weather, or anything like that to do with the weather. That is the facts about it. And to see how the money that people have to pay when they're buying at the pump, to see it being wasted and thrown around like that. Because these footpaths finish up, and they're going nowhere thin. So you're only cutting people, there's a footpath going there, but you can't go all the ways in it. If she's going to Kilardin, you can walk to Kilardin. It's not fair to settle there either, because the road is too much traffic, and the road is too narrow. But where there was a good white space, and where there was already a settled place, a settled way. They've all that changed at a massive cost. There's 27.4 billion for health minister, and I'm glad of that. But what we must be very careful about, our minister, is the way that that is spent. Because it hasn't been spent wisely or carefully, I don't know what's happening, but it isn't meeting the needs of the people that get sick. It's not meeting the needs of the people all the summer that wanted to get away for a week from minding their elderly parents, to go away with their children for just six days, and no one to mind, or no place for the parents to go for respite. We have very little respite in Kerry for that, and we need to address those things. And the waiting list in Tralee Hospital, the waiting list to get into the district in Kilarni and Kilmer and Dingle and Kassavine, to get into St. Columbanus's home. And then, I was very disappointed last week, when I had, inside in the Health Committee, someone said, some deputy said that, and frighten the daylights out of the people with disabilities. There's 54 patients in that Mary the Angels is being sold. Now, I've got a letter since from St. John of God saying that is not to close, that they're not closing. I want clarification on that from the Minister for Disabilities to see where did that story come from? Because it's hot, it has hot parents, it has hot patients, and I want that clarified and explained what's going on, because that's very unfair to hot people in that category, disabled, and maybe disabled for all their lives. It's very wrong to do that. We need Mary the Angels. We need to keep it open, and we need a lot more facilities like that to help those people, because I have seen patients with those disabilities being told that the only place they get residential care was in County Mead. Imagine that, all the way from Kilarni up to County Mead, and now we're being told, frightened again by a certain deputy, that Mary the Angels is to be sold. To be sold, that's very wrong, John Corlan. I want that statement retracted, and I want so that we can give confidence to the parents and to the patients that they are staying there and it's not been sold. It's not been sold. I am very grateful to the National Minister to thank you for recognising the players on the fields, the players that give us so much enjoyment all summer. The Kerry team, especially the likes of the Cliffords and the captain of the Kerry team from Kilarni, and all those players that gave so much to ensure that Kerry once again won the Sam McGuire. And I know it will be given across the country to other players and they deserve it, because they are the enjoyment and they are what we look forward to each year, and we have to keep them going because they have costs trying to get to training and to get to games and everything like that. They need to be helped in some small way. Thank you very much, John Corlan. Thank you Deputy.