I, too, support the motion. The fact is that ordinary people cannot afford to heat their houses, live in them and put children in childcare or in school. They are to the pin of their collars. I asked last week if the Government wants to starve them out and for them to die in the ditches. It is shocking. The red carpet was rolled out for the banks with the bailout. Now the red carpet is out for institutional investors that can buy streets and housing estates while we persecute our own people. Our duty in here as Tea…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing us to raise this Topical Issue matter. It is a hugely important issue. This is going to affect every man, woman and child in the State. The Minister of State might ask how that is. Farmers cannot buy fertiliser. Thankfully, credit unions are stepping in to give loans because the banks are not lending and the Government is standing idly by. We have been told by the European Commission that member state governments can make decisions to intervene and try to lessen the price. S…

We did not even get a copy of the Minister of State's reply. This is balderdash and total bunkum. It is also Green Party policy. Talking about growing clover and mixing things is an insult to farmers. The chairman of the agriculture committee is sitting behind the Minister of State. He knows this. The Green Party is codding Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It is shocking. It is destroying agriculture, and destroying Ireland for that matter. We will take decades to recover. Credit unions are trying to bail out farmers and…

Senator Hackett is in government.

Blame everyone.

Why do they not do something themselves?

To destroy farmers.

The Government has banjaxed the farmers.

The same as the forestry.

I will add my voice to this on behalf of the three rural Independents who are up the midlands, where we are. The problem is historic. The new 96-bed unit is supposed to be there. That sod was turned by the then Minister, Mary Harney, 20 bliain ó shin. The HSE is a failure. It has badly failed Limerick people and the people of north Tipperary. I salute Independent councillor Séamie Morris on the work he does and the other people of Nenagh who resisted the closure of the accident and emergency units in Nenagh and in …

The audacity of Mr. Watt and indeed the Minister for Health to go to Dubai to look at best practices during Covid speaks for itself and shows how out of touch they are. My good friend and the Minister of State's former colleague, the former Minister of State, Máire Hoctor, did her very best to keep Nenagh accident and emergency department open. She was hounded out of office by Deputy Kelly and others who attacked her at the time. We have to go back and revisit and open Nenagh accident and emergency department, whic…

We have to get real here. Deputy Damien English, a junior Minister, is present, but we have no interest in the working poor, the small farmer and the so-called "daoine beaga" - I do not mean in stature - or ordinary humble people of Ireland. "Let them eat cake" - if she was here now - is the attitude of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. Globalists is what they are, looking after big global companies to bring in all the technology companies and everything else and screw our own unfortunate people. I said yesterday the…

Yes.

There was a telephone in every house within a month.

It took a year to get it fixed.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and representatives of Bord Bia met the pig producers of Ireland last week. Put simply, the price of meal has gone up by 30 cent and the price of bacon is down by 40 cent. That equates to losses of roughly €38 per sow. There is a perfect storm here as these businesses cannot get work permits. Countries like France, Poland, Denmark and Holland have introduced schemes to help their pig industries so why can we not do so here? I said this to the Government yesterday. W…

It supports 8,000 jobs.

Can I clarify if there will be a second round for Deputy Michael Healy-Rae?

Similar to what my colleague has said, we are dancing around here on the head of a needle with all these grandiose schemes, such as the one introduced yesterday. This retrofitting scheme has been eagerly awaited and much wanted. People want to engage with it. It will, however, cost them €500 to get an assessment, and they will get back €250 whenever. I am talking about people on the margins. People have told me they have been waiting for two and half years already for the SEAI. I understand from Deputy O’Donoghue, …

-----shopping trolleys were filled up to the water level with goods in that Dunnes Stores outlet. The whole lot came to €16 or €18. It was shocking. There were loss leader products, and all these types of things. The companies are getting the money back in other ways, but they are selling all these things by way of champion products and below cost selling. It is shocking. I refer to the position in which they are putting the ordinary shopkeepers, the fear gnó or bean gnó. Those shopkeepers look after the people whe…