Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

At present, when people look at the tax take out of their earnings they hurt very badly. When they go to the petrol pumps they hurt very badly because it is all tax, tax and more tax. As far as I can see, the Government is doing everything it can to penalise workers, to stop enterprise and to close down businesses. We asked - we actually begged - on behalf of people involved in business, to reduce the VAT rate. Those calls were ignored. The people are remembering that now when we call to the doors. They are asking why 615 restaurants closed. That is not taking into account all of the other small beautiful businesses, family businesses, for which mothers and fathers, grandparents and children put their shoulders to the wheel. They are shutting down because they cannot make ends meet. They cannot afford to keep going. There is no incentive for people to work at present. We want to keep people working. The one person, the man or woman, it could be a hairdresser or a mechanic in a small way doing a bit of welding in the backyard, we want to encourage that. We want to keep those great people going.

Sometimes a small business can grow into a big business. In County Kerry I think of great people such as those in Munster Joinery which started from very humble beginnings and now is a massive operation employing thousands of people and contractors, not just in Ireland but abroad as well. We have many examples of that in County Kerry, small businesses like Torc Precision Engineering, contractors like KPH Construction Services in Kenmare, organisations that started small and through diligence and hard work became bigger. They create employment and provide valuable services in the community. We want to see that type of business grow. However, there is no attitude in Government of supporting workers. There is not. The biggest problem in the Government is that so many of the Members themselves never employed people. They do not know what it is like to pay somebody on a Friday evening. I do not mean the Members personally, I mean the Government. It does not know what it is like to pay other people to do work and to try to keep a business going.

Shops, pubs and hotels are struggling. The people involved in a certain type of business, in hospitality, are struggling to keep their doors open. The Government does not actually get that. Will they get it after this election? I do not know. Work has to be rewarded. We have to reward enterprise. Not to do so on this Government’s watch or on the watch of the incoming Government will mean paying a very high price. Only so much tax can be drawn out of people before they eventually give up. They will say they are not going to do this anymore because it is all take and no give.

In regard to the incentives in the budget, I am not going to criticise anything that was given, but it is tokenism. What is being done to small businesses is tokenism. Talking about such things as energy rebates for households does not take away from the fact that energy costs have gone through the roof, because of the constant attack on our supply of electricity. The Government wants us to use more electricity while we produce less of it, at a higher cost. How many times have I to say that before it eventually hits home? Bringing in biomass material from Brazil and things like that is not exactly an answer to shutting down Bord na Móna. Such things will never be forgotten. It will be like long ago when Fine Gael took a farthing out of the old age pension. It was remembered for decades afterwards. The closure of Bord na Móna will be an epitaph that will never be forgotten.

One of the few times Eamon Ryan actually left Dublin during Covid-19 was to go down to get his picture taken for the closure of Bord na Móna. These things are ridiculous and make no sense. We are getting that on the doorsteps. The Government is missing all of that. It seems to have lost the understanding of the basic things that Ireland is about, whether it is fishing or farming. In Kenmare bay this evening pair trawling is going on. I am sure Members know what pair trawling is. It is where every bit of fish that is in the bay is sucked up. It is so bad at present in Kenmare that seals are dying of starvation. That is a fact. When we had a population of seals along Kenmare Bay, sea safaris used to go out to look at the seals on the rocks, falling around the place, jumping in and out of the water. That cannot happen now because they are dead, due to starvation. The small fishermen are left with nothing. There are no fish all along the coastline of Kenmare River because tonight pair trawling is well under way.

It is outrageous. The Government talks about the protection of the environment and it sides with the Greens on every type of rubbish but it will do nothing about pair trawling. It is plundering the seas; that is what it is doing. It makes no sense to suck up everything and then it is taken away, sent to a factory, mushed up and used as a meal. It is totally insane; all the different categories of fish are mushed up and made into a maize meal. It make no sense. Why is the Government not looking at things like that? It is more interested in stopping people cutting a sod of turf for their own fires. The Government has lost the run of itself. Environmentally, if the Green Party stood for anything, it would be shouting every day over there about pair trawling but it does not. It is more interested in a cow belching. That is what it is more worried about. It does not make sense. I do not like being critical of people. I would love it if the Government was doing a good job because I would stand up and say it did something good. If you want me to point out something it did do well, which I voted for and was proud that the Government did was the homeowners protection Act where if you were upstairs in your house and somebody came up the stairs to attack you, the Government did something about that. I was glad of that. I put that on the record tonight to show that if I see the Government do something right, I will praise and compliment it. My god, when I see it do something wrong, my job is to stand up for Kerry, farmers, fishermen, business and say it has lot the run of itself.

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