Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

There is plenty of money here but no plan. I am not going to vote for this budget because I am standing up for the hospitality sector in County Kerry, the tourism capital of the western world that the Minister of State and her Government has totally abandoned here today. How in the name of God can the Government say this to the hoteliers, to the vintners, to the restaurant people and to the people who work so hard? I am talking about County Kerry because the people there have been contacting me yesterday, last week and last month. We have been lobbying the Government. We asked, pleaded and begged the Government but to no good. The Government turned around and abandoned them. Some 615 restaurants have closed in the past year. A measly grant will be provided to businesses which will be eaten up by the wage increases. I am not against the increase in the wages but they do have a ripple effect on employers. It is putting businesses under increasing pressure because of all of the other input costs they have.

The Government is still charging the rates which it has increased and for which it is directly responsible for. The energy costs are of course affected by the carbon tax increases and this is putting enterprises out of business. I am saying to the people in Kerry that I am not voting for the Government because it did not back the people. I was around the Ring of Kerry last night and everywhere I was going, they were saying that maybe the Government will not abandon them. The message is that the Government has abandoned them.

On social welfare increases, of course the increases that have been put there are very welcome. I ask why yesterday, and I am only one Member inside here, had I four hard-working women, people who are getting older and who had a pension, and had their pension was taken off them? At a time when the Government has to pipe the money out of their way, it cut the pensions of those four women in Kerry yesterday. They are left with nothing and are now relying on one pension going into the house, that of their husband. Has the Government got something against women, where it picks on the women's pension? Why? We had it before with the Labour Party where it went after women's pensions and now this Government is going after women's pensions. I do not know what problem it has with women.

On carers, we had a recent motion in this House which many of us supported to abolish the means test for the carer's allowance but the Government chose not to do that today. Why? What has it against the people who give care to other people? The Government increased the means test threshold to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple instead of abolishing the means test. The carer's support grant got an increase of €2.80 per week. That is shameful. The newborn grant, the €420 payment, is of course welcome.

Does anybody in government realise the cost of having a baby in Ireland today, the cost of getting set up, the cost of taking care of a baby and bringing them into the world? I am afraid the Government does not have much of an idea of that either.

On health, there are 455 replacement beds and 160 new community beds. How many are actually open? Beds in Kenmare, Dingle and many of our other community hospitals remain closed in state-of-the-art hospitals. Where will the staff come from to open these new beds? The difficulty in recruitment and retention of nurses due to bad pay and conditions is leaving a massive hole in our health service. Why are we exporting all our lovely young people? There are boys and girls who might want to or are qualified to work in the health sector but they cannot because the Government will not pay them properly and will not do anything to keep them. The Government is talking about opening beds but who will man them and who will service them?

There are 600,000 additional home help hours. Every one of us inside here knows that a person can apply for home help and can be approved for it and then he or she will go on a waiting list. Then the person is given an apology and told there is no one available to provide the care in that person's home. I commend and thank the people who are working in home help in County Kerry today. I know many of them. I put down questions in the Dáil supporting them and trying to get proper recognition from the Government for them but the Government does not do that. Every chance it gets, it cuts their little bit of mileage. The Government held it up once and would not even pay them, telling them that it would give it to them some other time. It was a battle to get that out of the Government for them. Why would the Government do that to people? It did that. It cannot claim it did not because it did. We spoke about it here in the Dáil. I was defending those people. Shame on the Government for what it is doing to the people who are doing an important job.

As for farmers, there are no incentives for young people to start farming and no incentives for older farmers to retire. The Government still fails to recognise that fact. We need to put proper supports in there. As for the residential zoned land tax, I was the first person to raise that issue in here when it came to the fore, in County Kerry in particular, about what the Government was doing to farmers. The Government is now saying the tax is still there but that farmers can apply for an exemption. The Government is still putting them to trouble, worry and expense. These are just people who, because of where their land is located and because they still continue farming, are being treated as though it is a massive asset and that they will start building houses. It is growing grass they want, not building housing.

With regard to housing and 10,000 new social houses, how many will be allocated to be built in County Kerry and, importantly, when will we finally get an affordable housing scheme in Kerry? More than 200 social housing units are being provided in Killarney town by an approved housing body. I welcome that and they are under construction. It is great news but when will we have something by way of affordable housing for young people? Every day, in places like Killarney, Tralee, Killorglin, Cahersiveen and Sneem, young people ask me why will we not do something to provide homes they can buy.. They are not looking for them for nothing but they want them to be affordable. There is the help-to-buy scheme for the first-time buyers but second-hand properties are not included yet again. When will the Government wake up and realise that a first-time buyer is a first-time buyer whether the house is brand new or second-hand? This is not very complicated. If the Government were to listen to this it is very easy to understand.

Of course tax relief is the thing that people would shout about. In case anybody says that I have a conflict of interest, of course I am declaring my interest but when it comes to tax relief and the people who provide accommodation, why do they not get some form of incentive, such as that put in place for the Ukrainian people whereby people could get €100 a month tax free? Why do we not have the same thing for Irish people? Why do we not have tax incentives for people who are providing accommodation for Irish people? Why should it be one for one and none for the other? That does not make sense and it is not fair.

With regard to roads, I am glad to see an extra €400 million for the Department of Transport. I had to come in here last week begging and scraping to seek to get back the roads that had been taken off, or should we say shelved? I am very glad that those have gone back now to Kerry County Council and are going to tender. I welcome it. It is the road up to Bunane and the road below it to Kinacross and out into Fossa and Faha. There are schemes that are back on the road now again, thankfully, but the Government did not want to do it because the Greens wanted to take them off. When will the crumbling national road sector in Kerry benefit? The N21 from Tralee through Castleisland and up to the county bounds is in seriously poor repair. The surface of the N23 from Farranfore to Castleisland is very poor. The N70 Ring of Kerry road and, of course, Tahilla to Blackwater is a disgrace. I travelled it last night at 1.30 a.m. before coming here this morning and could not close my eyes - although there was no fear of falling asleep - because of the rattling and the banging going along in the car. We also need to properly fund local improvement schemes.

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