Testing and tracing are the cause of the trouble we are in and why we must go back to level 5 again. Many sick people with other illnesses are suffering because they will have to wait longer. Doctors are out of flu injections. The Government is throwing loads of money at the HSE and there is loads of testing but no tracing. I will ask one serious question. I have asked it twice before and no one has come back to me. Is a member of NPHET involved in testing and is that person benefiting financially from that involve…

There has not been adequate tracing all year. That is why we are where we are.

The Taoiseach promised the buses would continue as they were until we had the capability of operating at 50%. He did not fulfil that promise.

I wish to speak on the same issue. It is clear that no cases happened in marts. Farmers are hurt because it is only a buyers' sale and the sellers get no look-in. The farmers will not be able to go in to sell their cattle. It is most unfair. This is even though not one single case happened in any mart. They obeyed the rules. Other businesses that did not break any rules feel let down as well. These are an exception. No case has happened in a mart. This will mean a difference of €100 to €200 less for farmers if the …

The Taoiseach should have visited the marts in Kerry to see the way they were run.

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. A few years ago, I think it was the second to last Government that got rid of bedsits in Dublin. That is when the housing problem became exacerbated in the city. We did not have that problem. Bedsits, as I understand it, are or were in cities. A single man or woman rented such a place to tide him or her over, as Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said, at a certain stage in their lives. When those people moved on and got into a family situation, they needed a bigger house. It is ama…

People in rural Ireland are very hurt today because they feel that the carbon tax is being increased to provide shiny new buses and other public transport services in Dublin. Those services will not be provided in rural Ireland and we must be realistic about that. If we took all the money out of the Central Bank, we still could not bus the people in rural areas to wherever they need to go every day, whether it be work, school, the mart or anywhere else. Hauliers are outraged. They are saying that the price of oil h…

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on this very important budget. While I welcome the €4 billion pledged to the health services, one wonders how and where it will be spent and, most important, whether we will get the beds they say we will get. I have only to start with Killarney. Instead of getting more beds in our Killarney Community Hospital or in St. Columbanus Community Hospital, we are told the bed numbers will be cut. We will see very shortly who is right and who is wrong. I hope that we do not get the …

I do not subscribe to this notion of climate change. The climate changed going back through the pages of history. I will not go into that but it is a fact and it is well known. This is a savage attack on people in rural Ireland who own a car, maybe an old one, although it has been tested and is legally on the road. It is an attack on old people who have no other way of heating their homes except for oil, briquettes or coal. It is an attack on farmers who cannot stir or move around at all or do anything on their far…

I made no deal like the Labour Party. I will make no deal with anyone, only the constituents that I represent in Kerry.

They are the people that I will make my deal with.

People will have to go to the bog.

The Government is looking after the farmers all right.

I am glad of the opportunity to raise the PUP as pubs, restaurants and many businesses in Kerry have been closed down again since last night. I am glad to see Deputy Griffin is in the Chamber. County Kerry should not have been closed down at all, as our numbers are very low and there are many other counties that also have very low figures and which also should not have been closed. Since they have been, publicans and restaurant owners are now unable to trade. They will need support because they cannot live on the w…

The Taoiseach's demeanour and attitude and his answers yesterday when questioned about the cross-border directive and allowing people to go to the North of Ireland to get their cataracts removed were totally unacceptable. He talks about building something in Cork to deal with this problem. He is saying that he will not allow the cross-border directive to continue but how is there such a difference between him and the Minister, Deputy Coveney? They are in the same Government and the same constituency. Many people wi…

In the short time I have, I want to highlight and make sure that our agriculture industry will not be compromised in any way following the break-up of the UK and the European Union. As we are an island nation and there may be tariffs to go through England, we must ensure that we have direct access from Ireland to mainland France by ferry or whatever to ensure that we have ample ways of getting our produce into the rest of Europe. That is very important. Cattle prices are fairly good at the present time. I have not …

An economic research body based in Germany has forecast in its latest publication that Ireland could lose over 35,000 jobs in companies directly or indirectly involved with exporting to the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The majority of these jobs are in rural areas. They have been badly affected as it is, without being hurt any further. The part of the country that I come from and represent has Munster Joinery , Liebherr Container Cranes and Fexco, all of which export to and deal with the UK day in and day o…

It is not a laughing matter.

That is not fair to say.

That is a reflection on the people who need to use this bus.