You are not doing anything.

Earlier this year the Government announced, to another fanfare, that it would give free school transport to everyone. That has caused untold trouble, unease and anguish for everybody. The Government must have known that the system was not fit for purpose in any case and has not been for a long number of years and now it is chaos. The fact is that 15,000 children are now being shut out completely, some of whom had places or concessionary tickets. This has caused absolute bedlam but the Government wanted to announce …

It is a mess.

The Government has made a mess of it.

Where are the buses? Where are the drivers?

Where are the bus drivers and buses?

The Government could not do a thing for them.

The Government does nothing most of the time.

I am delighted to be able to speak on this matter, as one who was here on the night we voted for the bank bailout. It is the worst political decision I have ever made in my life. I have said that countless times. I suppose I will not be forgiven by people. I will not forgive myself, because it was a con job. Reckless behaviour went on and, unfortunately, it is still going on. On the night that NAMA was set up, I said that it was like a wild animal released in the woods. Nobody had any idea where it would end up. I …

Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan an páirtí Glas? This is unbelievable and bizarre. The Government is literally trying to starve and perish the people with its policies. I actually believe that now. Kindergarten children would not do what the Government has done. It shut down the plants and power supplies and then tried to say we have no ESB. EirGrid told our group 15 months ago that there was a threat. The Taoiseach, after his meandering around Béal na Blath, came up and said the Go…

There is no power to run it.

I too as leader of the Rural Independent Group want to thank gach éinne atá ag obair anseo. I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all the staff, including the ushers, gardaí and Bills Office, who worked late into the night trying to accommodate all the legislation that the Government rushed through. Deputy McNamara said it was 100 Bills at about one minute each. It is no way to run a parliament. I ask about the cap on income limits which the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, has promise…

I thank the Deputies for putting forward the Bill. It is a very important issue but how many more times will we debate it? This huge problem is becoming more acute by the week literally. It is an awful situation. We then come into the Chamber and start demonising landlords and painting them as bad. The vast majority of landlords are decent people and there are some rogues. The Government seems to be infatuated with the big conglomerates and entities that have multiple properties. We see that on a daily basis. I do …

The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, was the biggest one.

A lot of rubbish.

Just like different Ministers.

There is much concern about the level of policing in our cities, towns and villages or the lack thereof. People feel intimidated by gangs of young people taking drugs and engaging in antisocial behaviour of all kinds. Indeed, in many cases people are afraid to walk down the main streets of their towns and villages. This is a pity. The lack of gardaí is staggering. We never had such a scarcity. I salute the work they do but there are not enough of them and they do not have the resources. The public feel we are not s…

Get the wellies on and go and meet them.

I too am glad to speak on this. I am quite alarmed about a number of things. At Taoiseach's questions I asked about the recent visits to conferences and whether neutrality was ever mentioned. The Taoiseach practically ignored me, but then I asked him a second time he said no, neutrality was never mentioned. Our neutrality is being undermined daily and sidelined, with warships coming into the Port of Cork. There were two recently: one British and one Canadian. I am also intrigued and concerned about another issue. F…

In an earlier contribution, I asked about the warships that were at the quay in Cork. As a neutral country, why do we not assert on all occasions the fact we are a neutral country? We should be proud of it. The Taoiseach told me it was not mentioned at the World Economic Forum, good, bad or indifferent. On another point, if there are strict and robust sanctions, how is it that we can import such an amount of corn that it drives down the price of corn here for farmers who have suffered due to the cost of fertiliser,…