Danny Healy-Rae demands hospital opening and housing fixes

Minister, thank you very much for being here this evening to hear our request. I suppose we need to thank you for the money that has been allocated in budgets. People would say to you there's a budget every day but the budget is about being fair and I know that government has tried to do its best and to be fair as possible but I suppose there is a complaint out there and it's kind of in a lot of people's minds is that the working class people workers and with rising costs and everything that maybe they they they were left behind a bit and that we need to address the issues of housing people who want to build their own house they're having severe difficulty and I suppose I'll start off with help first in in Killarney we have a new district hospital which is built and I when you allocate all this money to the HSE I suppose it's about following up where the money is going and how to spend in the individual sectors that the HSE are in charge of and we have a new community hospital built in Killarney and the question is when is it going to open because so much else is dependent on it we need a primary care centre in Killarney and the grounds are there and with the if the whole district is closed down and the patients go into the new one and Columbanus is closed down and goes into the new to the as part of the new community hospital they can be used for for these things the primary care centre a minor injuries clinic which is vital for Killarney at times in Killarney there could be up to 10 000 people in the summer time in Killarney and the amount of pressure that's on the the general hospital and truly on the A&E at different times much of that could be of that burden could be lightened if we're the minor injuries clinic in Killarney I'm asking seriously for that and respite thing I I've raised about the respite here several times in this debate already I feel I feel for the families that you know that are caring for either a brother or a sister or a mother or a father or someone in the family and they can't get away for one week in the summer time like everybody else and they really deserve it and while we appreciate what's being done for carers I believe that there should be no means test applied when we're going caring for someone but he taking you want to do it in the course of this government and we hope that he will because we have so much need for carers and country depends so much on carers and and the burden on the health budget will be much increased if we don't see after them because uh and you know when you are a carer you're actually um leaving that person you're caring for you're leaving that life yourself because you have to build your uh days and hours and minutes around those people and they can't we're not valuing them really half enough um the self-employed people as I say uh the one part of the of the jigsaw is they they feel that they it's been promised for many years when they get sick they have no allowance to look forward to or no help and they have to try to keep the the wheels turning whether it is the wife or whether to the family we need to we need to see after those people because they're they're employing workers and they're they're keeping their individual projects going and and they they need to be seen after so even I fear for those people I'm told that that if even though you have public liability for all your employees you're actually not covered at all yourself you can't get public liability to cover yourself for the matter if for them if if if you're the operator uh the man in charge running whatever business it is you're not covered by local uh public liability yourself um we could do a lot for housing minister um in Kerry there are simple things the planning we can't get planning because of this um uh rule this urban strict urban generated pressure rule that's depriving so many people of building houses in their own in their own land because they're not farmers sons and daughters are accommodated they are listened to but their neighbors next door out the country that never lived in the town they are being deprived of getting planning permission i'm asking the uh this won't cost the government anything in actual fact you'll get money out of it because the the the the materials that they're buying the tax that they uh that they'll create uh income tax and whatever from fellas working uh they will generate money rather than costy money so and then likewise we will rule we've over 100 kilometers of national primary rules going through our county you can't uh access a new site even through an existing entrance if it because of the rule that says 2012 when it was your predecessor predecessor uh leo vranker when he was minister for transport in 2012 brought in that and then about affordable houses in kerry we don't have that scheme in kerry and god almighty minister the it costs the same to build a house in kerry as any other one and we we and and and and maybe a lot more at times because uh some parts of kerry are very very remote and it takes a long time can you imagine from clarny to to to to dingle is is is an old and and a quarter and the same from clarny to to can save in another road in the quarter and if we go back to an inch island to another three quarters and all beyond that and down into the hat the balance skillings there's awful journeys and and people are doing great to live in these places at all because they're far away and services and all those things are far away from anything that they have to buy they have to travel half the country if we're talking coming from a place like uh willier is there in the middle of the country uh if he travels 75 miles he'd be in any direction he'd have the whole of the country practically covered but that's not the case in kerry um we have a problem in kim air minister no estate for private uh people private housing has been built there in in 20 years the first problem we had we hadn't a treatment plant you could get one off houses all right or the local authority built a few houses they were allowed got permission all right but because of our treatment plant being overburdened there was no permission and lo and behold now we have two uh applications pending 169 houses in total and they went out for further information and the question is where are they going to get the water so i hear that he'll give you money to to to ishgaren and i'm appealing to you all to get around this and put your shoulder to the wheel and ensure that this permission is granted and that ishgaren provides the water you can they can move the local authority won't give the permission if if the water is is not to be the source being increased or the volume of water increased and i'm asking to to to look at that we thank you for the hospitality the the reduction in the vet and we myself and might we fought very hard for this for the tonic land and the impact around the ring and carry and all the great hospitality product that we have in our county we're the leaders in tourism i'd say we don't i i don't think anyone will contradict us in that and we need to protect that for the mountain workers and all what's at stake for the spin-off and the whole lot we we need to keep that but i thought that it could be brought in at the start of january but i'm disappointed minister that it's not and that we have to wait till july i don't know if all the businesses can hang on they're thankful for the the the the the the the proposal and and hope that they can hang on until it comes into place vacant houses i'm disappointed with the way the vacant houses are being dealt with and uh when you see someone paying rent and they've only one or two the owner of the house have only one or two houses they don't have a company or anything and they finish up paying 50 percent tax there there's no enticement in that and the other problem that they have is if they want their house back in a year or so uh or two years they're worried that they can't get them back so we have houses all around this vacant and what they're here we're at now is putting attacks on vacant properties there's an old saying minister you can't get blood out of a turnip and if they if it is the case that they can't see that what that is worthwhile to put money into the house the house is depreciating it's no longer a vacant house then it becomes a derelict house i thought like other countries that we could have a separate tax for rental which they have in other countries like 20 percent rather the these people saying 50 percent you do know minister if the house stays vacant you're getting no percent so that's what i wanted to look at and you see we have the ukraine there's a great scheme where they're getting 600 euros paid tax free to the landowner for to host them something like that we all we must see after our own people to minister and i'm asking to look at this because there's any amount of vacant houses out there and any amount of people could be housed if we if we went at it right and i'm asking to look at it because the houses are there which is half the battle but to get them into to get people into them that's the other part of it and i see there's work on that thing and we'll work with the minister if if you could go after something like that because the houses are there and we'd help to to to to tell the story to the landowners or the house owners and get them to bite the biscuit thank you