I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity. The oral health of many thousands of people in the State is under threat because medical cards are not accepted by many of those working in the dental profession. This is not an attack or a slight on our great dentists, who provide an invaluable service, not least in County Kerry. It is the exact opposite: it is to support them. Quite simply, dentists are finding it extremely difficult to run their businesses because of ever-increasing costs on them and b…

This is very important. I am inundated on this matter. This is not just a Kerry problem, it is a problem throughout the country.

I think we are sharing time.

I acknowledge Deputy Mattie McGrath for allowing me his time on this very important matter. When taking about corporate enforcement, something that strikes me, as it must strike all Deputies in the House as they do their clinics, go around meeting people and dealing with people who have had roughshod treatment from the banking and lending institutions, is that there is a lot of enforcement on those people. The Minister of State ably represents his constituents and is 100% on the side of young couples whose mortgage…

I thank the excellent Sinn Féin spokesperson on housing, Deputy Ó Broin, for highlighting this. In saying that, I do not want to give the impression I would give Sinn Féin a blank cheque of support. While I very much appreciate Sinn Féin's fighting on and dedication to the housing problem we have, I would never be two-faced about anything and I have concerns about some aspects of what Sinn Féin is proposing because I am afraid it will hunt and put out people involved in the housing sector. Why do I say that? It is …

We have chaos in University Hospital Kerry.

I have no confidence in this Government. It has made a mess of the hospital service. University Hospital Kerry may as well close its doors tonight because of mismanagement at government level. Poor decision after poor decision has been made by a Government completely out of touch. Katherine Zappone was not going to represent me or the people of Kerry whom I represent. That is why what the Government did was so wrong. She was on a solo run to promote her agenda, which was not mine. She would not have much support in…

My main concern about the continuation of this legislation is based on the experiences I have had over recent weeks and months. I will give an example. I encountered very special circumstances where a family member wanted to come back to be with a dying parent. It did not happen because of the quarantining. The person could not even come home for the burial because of the quarantining. An exception could have been made in that instance. A case was made but it was not accepted. Every one of us is for nothing else bu…

I will be dividing the time in half between me and Deputy O'Donoghue from Limerick. At the outset, I thank the people who work in the offices of the Rural Independent Group for their excellent work in helping to present this important and timely motion. I also want to thank Deputy Nolan for introducing it and Deputy Mattie McGrath for his work. Our group in general wants to make a point of great importance clear because it has been thrown at me a number of times that we now are saying we do not want the hospitality…

Let me put it this way. I am not his spokesman and he is sitting there in front of me and is perfectly capable of speaking for himself. Words were attributed to him yesterday which he did not utter. As I say, I am not talking out of turn here and the man is far more experienced in the political world than I am as he is here longer than me. I know that he was wronged yesterday because words were attributed to him which I certainly did not hear him say, in any event. I hope that this clarifies that matter, because ev…

My apologies.

I am grateful for the short opportunity that we have to discuss the Bill. It is very short, considering the enormity of the legislation that is being rushed through the House. I was disappointed yesterday evening with the vote that did away with the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. It denied us the right to put forward amendments, discuss and debate them and vote on them. That is what democracy is all about. Unfortunately, the Government is throwing democracy out the window in this whole debate because it is a…

I am sorry. Am I out of time?

I will be brief as I know we are caught for time. I thank the Minister of State because we are now where we have wanted to be for a long time. I am disappointed with some of the content of this Bill. There are still anomalies and concerns, particularly surrounding assets, whether they are family farms or other similar assets. I have always said that a family farm should never be looked upon as an asset in a monetary way because all any person who has a farm ever wants to do is to enhance it, use it, try to make a l…

I am very grateful for the little time I have. If the nose of the Chief Medical Officer is itchy this evening, it would be no wonder. I do not like naming individuals, but we must ask what is Dr. Holohan playing at? The Government and the Minister are attempting to pass legislation telling the nation to do one thing and then the Chief Medical Officer is coming out at a critical time, when there is enough confusion and uncertainty, and saying something else entirely. Is the aim to create division, chaos and uncertai…

I know and, believe me, I am finishing now.

I am fine. I have hit the amendment as hard as I can hit it, and that is it.

Yesterday, people from the peat industry were outside. I was disappointed that the Minister did not go out to meet them. They are growers who say that their businesses are being adversely affected. I met people who have been involved in horticulture for decades. Their families are steeped in it. They wonder how in the name of God it makes sense that they must now get their peat from Scotland. They are looking at importing it from other parts of Europe at a significant cost. They do not want to do that. It is not na…

I will most certainly. The Government is attacking our people in the name of protecting the climate. My goodness gracious me, but what it is doing is an absolute disgrace and I will rub the Government's nose in it again and remind it that it stopped us from making and selling peat briquettes in Ireland. The Government shut down our plants while telling us that it was fine for us to import briquettes from Germany and sell those German-made briquettes proudly. I continually spoke on behalf of the farming and forestry…

I am finishing. It is hard enough to make money out of machinery when it is working. In many instances these machines have now stopped and these people are trying to hold on to those machines by trying to make the payments. They are in a really bad way, but the Minister could not care less about them. He does not give a damn about the traditional things, such as fisheries, farming and forestry. The Minister does not care about any of them. He does not care anything about the horticultural people. If he did, he woul…