I did not interrupt Deputy Sherlock.

I did not interrupt the Deputy when he was talking.

Those are the antics of the Deputy to interrupt me and those have been his antics. I never denied the Deputy the right to talk about the people of north Cork and if I am talking about the people of Kerry here, I tell the Deputy not to interrupt me at this stage.

I am not answerable to Deputy Sherlock inside this Chamber at any time. I was elected by the people of Kerry and it is them and them alone I will answer to and not to the Deputy. I am telling him not to be interrupting me.

I want the House to hear of this person I represent, or who is one of the people I represent in this redress scheme proposed by the Government. I tried to contact the agency involved and I gave the timeline of when he was born and of when he was fostered out. He could clearly prove that it was at nine months. He was told, I believe by Tusla who represented the State, that perhaps it was only two months. I can see what the Government is at. It is trying to deny people redress. The Government, and there is nothing wr…

I am all right. I will be fine.

We are thankful for the supports that have been given to many people. However, I must say that in the past number of hours, I have got a woeful lot of criticism from working-class people; those in the middle who are paying for all of this. As recently as ten minutes ago, a man was on to me about his ESB bill. He is a working person. His wife also has to work. They have big bills and a young family. He was pointing out that his bill has gone from €270 to €890. It has more than tripled. Working-class people are in a …

I am glad to have the opportunity to discuss the important issues of excise duty, VAT and the significant cost of fuel for people on the road. The Minister stated that excise duty and VAT rates would be increased in, I believe, June and September. I appeal to him not to restore the rates of excise duty and VAT unless the cost of fuel imports reduces to what it was in January 2022 before the war. People will not be able to afford it. There are those who cannot manage without a car or other form of transport. They ha…

He wants to support the Green Party.

I wish to bring to the Taoiseach's attention the crisis with the price of fertilisers and what is happening with farming in Ireland today. This is the second year that Irish farmers will have to pay unrealistic, exorbitant, over-the-top prices for fertilisers. In recent weeks Germany, other European countries and the UK are paying 40% less than our farmers for fertilisers. They pay €500 a tonne for urea while Irish farmers are paying €850 to €900. I thought when we went into the European Common Market in 1973 that …

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply, but he dealt with everything except what I asked him to address. Will he agree to hold a high-level investigation into what is happening? That is what I am asking him for. This issue is serious and is hurting farmers all over the country, including in Kerry of course and most importantly. It is also hurting consumers, though. The farmers are not Mother Teresas. If they have to pay an exorbitant cost for fertiliser, it will have to be added to the rest of their costs and the poor…

In the first place, they only took 2 cent off agricultural diesel.

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this. I am opposed to the setting up of a citizens' assembly, because we are the elected people in here to represent the people out there. Hand-picking a group of people, as the Government did in previous citizens' assemblies, is not fair. When one thinks about it, one of those assemblies which was very important did not include any representatives from 11 counties, County Kerry being one of them. I am afraid of the Government setting up an assembly here, where there i…

I thank Sinn Féin for this motion. If all of us who have been talking about housing in here for the last seven or eight years put one block on top of the other every day since we started talking we would have a building built that was taller than the Empire State Building in New York. That is the gospel truth. There are a few things I have raised several times before. We have 171 voids in Kerry. The Government should start there and give us money to put those back in use again. Levies and service charges are depriv…

I raise the issue of local improvement schemes. Kerry received €799,000 from the fund this year. It will do approximately 15 roads. However, there are 673 applications as of today to be dealt with. These are public roads that are not taken in charge. At the rate we are going, it will take 30 years to deal with them. These roads are used by households, farmers and service providers, including doctors and nurses. These people pay their motor tax, property tax, income tax, VAT and excise the same as people in Dublin. …

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak about Civil Defence. I thank the Minister for bringing forward this legislation at this time. The memorandum circulated to Members states that the purpose of the Bill is to modernise the existing legislation relating to civil defence matters contained within the Air-Raid Precautions Acts, 1939 and 1946, and the Civil Defence Act 2012. Civil Defence provides five core services, including emergency response, search and rescue, medical response, community assistance and a radi…

This Bill will have very serious implications for farmers, and especially small farmers in rural Ireland, predominantly in the west. Things are very bad as it is, and it is hard enough for people to survive and to make ends meet. The other problem is how to entice the young generation to follow in their footsteps. With what is going on now, there is no effort being made to help these farmers. We should be talking about the price of fertiliser, and what it is costing people. It is evident that the purpose of this re…

I am no waffler.

I am no waffler though.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion. People in every walk of life are suffering from the increased cost of living in our country, especially less well-off people who are suffering more and are less able to cope with these increased costs. The increased cost of gas and oil has driven up everything else. If we did what other countries did at the very beginning by capping the cost of electricity and curtailing the amount of VAT on gas, carbon tax and excise that the Government took, the thing could hav…