In the interest of ethics and in the context of the world we are living in today, a person who is involved in different things should declare an interest in the budget. I did not hear anybody else doing it but for fear that a person would be condemned afterwards, I will declare it. It was ironic to see Members in government clapping for the budget today when one thinks how people are suffering at home. Despite the good news that is contained in certain sections of budget 2023, I do not think they would be happy to …

When the late Jackie Healy-Rae gave his last interview to Maurice O'Keeffe, he spoke about people who he remembered from long ago. They smoked turf in their pipes. Women in particular did this. They sat down by the fire late at night and smoked turf when they had no tobacco. Smoking means a lot to certain people. Like the Minister and the Government, I would be happier if nobody smoked ever again, but it is the crutch in life for some people. It is what they look forward to. It is the only little luxury that they h…

I am glad to speak on behalf of many business owners in Kerry who have been in contact with me about this issue. They are finding it difficult to run their businesses at night. They were thinking about stopping the night-time entertainment they were putting on because when they added up all of the costs it was just not profitable to be at that business late at night. I can see this from all sides because all my clinics are held in smaller public house venues. You do not want to be upsetting one by supporting anothe…

I welcome this measure. I fully appreciate and value the massively important role that employers play in Ireland. I hope that the Government would also appreciate them, but I do not think it does sometimes. It is not just the big employers. Of course, we very much appreciate the people who come from overseas and invest here. We welcome the very big employers that we have - the ones we would call homegrown. Above all else, we have to place great significance on the small employers, the people who first of all create…

I want to tell the Minister about my experience at the National Ploughing Championships yesterday. He and his colleagues are considering banning ploughing in Ireland, which is another ridiculous suggestion.

The Minister of State can say "What?" but this is the same as a lot of the other madcap ideas the Government has had. I want to tell the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that many people mentioned his name to me yesterday and asked me what in the name of God is that man trying to do to them. These were fine, respectable people from all parts of Ireland. I am telling the Minister the truth when I say he would not be happy if he knew what they were saying about him and about Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

I can tell the Minister and Minister of State that Fianna Fáil has lost rural Ireland, Fine Gael has lost rural Ireland and the Green Party never had it to lose it. I want to tell the Minister and his colleagues, some of whom are shouting me down, a story about what happened at my clinic the other night. I was invited into the home of a lady called Nora, who is nearer 90 years of age than 80. When I went into her house, she had a very small bit of a fire going, with maybe five or six lumps of coal in the back of th…

The Minister is a failure. The people in government with him are failures. He is a disgrace. The Minister should go to the ploughing match, walk up and down-----

-----and see what the people will say to him and hear what they think of him. I pray on my bended knees-----

-----that he, like the Green Party in the North, will get his answer. I pray that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which have lost rural Ireland forever and will never again get it back, will get their answer-----

-----the next time they go before the people. They forgot they were servants of the people.

I am sorry. All they did was to go on a rampage doing whatever they wanted to do. They will get their answer and that answer they will get.

I was shocked to hear the Minister proposing to ban gas and oil boilers by 2025. This is a huge mistake and I strongly urge the Government to review the facts and listen to the experts in this sector to solve the climate issue in the domestic heating sector. This is a knee-jerk reaction by the Minister that is damaging rural Ireland already. Firebird Heating Solutions, which is next door to me at home in Ballyvourney, Kingspan and Grant Engineering are members of OFTEC, the Oil Firing Technical Association. They ar…

I will tell the Minister the plan. There are four points. HVO is fossil fuel free heating because it is made from a waste. It should have a zero rate of carbon tax, zero duty and a VAT rate of 5% applied to it, if the Government is serious about climate issues in rural Ireland. It is not a fossil fuel, so why are we taxing it as such for heating? That is a good point. The Government should implement that. The Government can also show how serious it is about the climate issue by extending the biofuel obligations sch…

I thanked the Minister in a public forum the other day but I thank him again. On a personal basis I followed his political career for decades and always admired him. I always knew he was a person of great capability and I am delighted to see him where I like to see him. Enough about that. At the outset I will tell a story of how FDI can work at its most practical level. In the town of Killarney was a great man, Macky Shea, who started a great business, M D O'Shea. He worked very hard. He started off cutting timber …

Teddy McCarthy, a diesel engine mechanic, garage proprietor, petrol seller and bus operator from Sneem in County Kerry recently recounted to me the following. I will not name the vehicles involved because it would be wrong to do so. No more than naming people who cannot be here to defend themselves, naming the vehicles could be very damaging to the people who produce them. I will say they were expensive models of motor cars. One of them took off from Dublin. It had cost €82,000 and it was heading to Sneem. It made …

Perhaps the Red Bull will give them wings. I would like to see something connecting the brain of the Minister with the reality of day-to-day living.

Deputy McDonald has been promoted.

You put on taxes as well.

What is at the core of all of this is that people's confidence in institutions of the State is being completely eroded. We can go back through the history of many of the tribunals that we had, and the overruns in what they actually cost. The IBRC commission of investigation and what it is costing is like a runaway train. It is as if, when people are working for the State and when they are engaged by an arm of the Oireachtas to carry out some function, they literally have a blank cheque, there are unlimited resource…