I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for bringing this important motion before the House. The Green Paper that came out caused great upset among not only individuals but also the organisations that represent people with different types of disability. It was going to lead to a very unfair situation whereby it would put an unfair disadvantage on people and put pressure on them if they had a disability and were trying to seek work. The different scales of payments were not going to be fair or equitable. I was total…

I congratulate the Minister of State very much and I wish him every good luck in his role. I thank firstly all of the medical personnel who help people who go through their journey of cancer. I pay a particular word of thanks to the people who work in Kerry on Daffodil Day and to all of the volunteers who voluntarily raise funds. I thank the people involved in the Kerry-Cork link cancer bus which carries people who are suffering from cancer on their journey to the centre of excellence, which is very important. A ve…

Financial prudence, of course, is very important. Putting away money for the future is very important but you also have to deal adequately with the problems we have right now. To ensure our future economy will grow, we need to make sure our present businesses will stay operating. I attended a meeting recently in Kenmare, which is representative of many other places throughout County Kerry, where people have been faced with massive rates increases. It is unsustainable and it will lead to many hairdressers, small clo…

They will get a hammering anyway.

The battery buses; they had to go back to Dublin.

I warmly congratulate the Taoiseach, his family and the new Ministers. I wish the outgoing Taoiseach every happiness and success. I have a special word for Simon Coveney; I wish him good luck and thank him for everything. I will be the first person to invite the Taoiseach to County Kerry. I want him to come very soon as he has been a very good visitor in the past in his different roles. I invite him to meet with farmers and small businesspeople in Kerry at the earliest opportunity. I went to the Taoiseach's new off…

I thank Deputy Cullinane and his party for bringing this issue to the fore. In discussing the delivery of services, I wish to speak about GP services in places such as the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, which is losing GPs. If we do not have access to care in our rural locations in particular and if we do not have the requisite resources in those locations, it will be detrimental. I very much welcome that a deputation from the Iveragh Peninsula, comprising people from Cahersiveen, Waterville, Portmagee, Valentia…

I compliment the Labour Party of old, the Labour people who were here in the past, the good people who were here for many years, when the Acting Chairman, Deputy Ring, was also here.

There were sound people in Labour at that time. We had the Springs, Moynihan-Cronins and other great people here-----

-----not people like those who are here now. I will tell the House why. The current people, at their conference, said they would build 1 million houses. The only thing these people would know about a house would be how to object to it-----

-----and how to object to developments. Those are the people here now.

The objectors of today are of what I would call the useless Labour Party of today. It is defunct, obsolete and non-existent in the people's psyche. As far as the people are concerned, the party is irrelevant in Irish politics today. It is ironic to see its members talking about housing considering that they are the finest group of objectors and do-nothingers I have ever seen.

They are leading in no way-----

Sorry, Chair, it is a fright that they do not have the manners to keep their mouths shut. However, when you are irrelevant all you can do is shout inside here in the way they are doing.

I would like to use my time properly in saying we have many-----

-----difficulties in housing at present, and we have solutions to housing.

We have practical-----

You can be sure of one thing: the policies we have do not mean we will stand up-----

-----and say we will build 1 million houses.

It is a fright they do not have the manners to let a person have his time.