I respectfully ask the Minister if he will address the unfair anomaly that persists for some public sector workers, including and especially teachers, as a result of the two-tier pay system that was introduced more than a decade ago, along with the other financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, cuts.

It has been made very clear to me that the discrimination within the two-tier pay system in schools is having a deeply unsettling effect on the teaching profession. Lower pay is driving a significant number of people away from the profession. The two-tier pay system has now been in place since 2011, more than a decade, and must be removed. Teachers who entered the system since 2011 are paid at a lower rate than their colleagues for carrying out the same work. Understandably, people are fed up and out of patience. T…

Millions have been spent educating these teachers and we cannot afford to lose them to countries like the United Arab Emirates and other places. The discrimination is having a deeply unsettling effect on the teaching profession. The Minister said an agreement has been reached or whatever. When will these teachers actually receive the pay they are being denied? That is the question. When will that happen? We are told there is already a deterioration in the quality of services being provided to the young students bei…

Leave the people who cut their turf alone.

I would say the Minister must get glasses because that is not what he said.

The Minister would try to sell sand in the Sahara.

I will take the Minister, Leo and Micheál out of the bog for a while. It is clear they are bogged down to the bane. Fertiliser costs are savage and are putting farmers under savage pressure. However, if proper levels of lime were applied to the land, it would increase fertility, make it more productive, and reduce the amount of fertiliser needed to be spread on the land. Will the Minister bring back the subsidy for lime? It was there before. I am asking for this, please, given the increased transport costs for deli…

I am very glad to get another opportunity to talk about the serious matter of the infliction of extra charges to people all over the country. The Minister wants to carry on his crusade of increasing the carbon tax and penalise many sectors and people all over the country, especially in rural Ireland. Sadly, I believe he is not doing any good, only harm, in Government. I was brought up being told that if you cannot do any good for people, please do not hurt or harm them. The understanding was, in the first place, th…

-----come out and vote against the carbon tax tonight and give up the codding. One fellow said on Kerry radio-----

----that he is for the carbon tax-----

-----but he is against the increase. I apologise to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

We have nothing to do with the Regional Group.

He is with the Government. He is voting with them every day.

They are on the run.

You have lost rural Ireland.

He will be here, I suppose. If he is not, I will keep it going.

We have been asking for some real meaningful reduction for motorists, the haulage industry and people who use fuel to heat their homes. We have asked for it day after day here. What the Government is offering this evening is very minimal. The Government is saying that this is what is being provided and that it had to get permission from Europe to be allowed to reduce the VAT rate. In all my time, I never heard that we had to ask Europe to increase it in the first place. That is a fact. I know I am right. I never he…

What about the turf?

Turf-----

The Taoiseach is relaxing too much. He should come down to Kerry and see whether they will laugh when they see him coming.