Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2022-10-20
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Michael Healy-Rae (IND), Kerry

I will highlight an analogy on what Government gets and what Government wants. Take the Minister. This year, he wanted to stop people from going to the bogs and cutting turf. What did he get? He was personally the cause of more people going to the bog this year than ever before. People who used to cut two hoppers, for example, cut four or five. Their attitude was that they would fill the shed because he might stop us completely in the future. Thankfully, there are sheds full but it is no thanks to the Minister. That highlights that what the Government wants and tries to force people to do sometimes has the opposite effect. If the Minister thinks he can coerce, bully or force people into changing a system they have had - for example, short-term lets - or force someone who might have an apartment alongside the house and who is doing short-term lets, Airbnb or whatever into long-term lets, believe me it will have the opposite effect and will actually hurt what the Minister is trying to help, exactly as happened to him with the turf.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-10-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:12+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-10-20