Without interruption, please. I support these amendments. I am a farmer's son. I also understand farming and where Macra na Feirme is coming from. The Minister is from a farming community himself. The farmers who were here today are aged up to 35. I was thankful to see a 50-50 representation of men and women supporting the young Macra na Feirme members today. The average age of people going into farming is a lot lower. I spoke to many of them today who said they have no future in farming. I have three brothers who …

The Minister referred a moment ago to all the different things he brought in through CAP and for farmers a number of months ago. Could he tell me now why Macra na Feirme members marched to the Dáil today? The boards they had in front of them stated “McConalogue, Hackett and Heydon – Family Farms for Sale”. That was on their placards. The Minister said he had helped to put in place all these different funds for those same farmers and had increased them, but he forgot that they want to work with the Government for th…

The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Ministers of State, Deputies O'Donnell and Noonan, appeared at the housing committee today to discuss Housing for All. The Ministers spoke about the houses being built in Limerick city and elsewhere in the country. I welcomed the waiving of the planning permission fee for local authorities. The positivity stopped, however, when we considered County Limerick and discussed infrastructure. Everybody in my constituency is on the back foot because of the lack of infrastructure. Hous…

The first thing when it comes to local properties that are vacant is that we should look at how many properties belong to the Government and the local authorities. The local authorities in County Limerick are number one in dealing with vacant and derelict properties. The problem, however, is that it is not possible for them to turn those properties around fast enough and get them back out because they do not have the staff to refurbish those houses and get them back into use. Those houses are sitting idle for 12 mo…

What about the serial objectors?

I welcome this initiative. As a contractor myself, I wish to ask the following. When I buy something off the shelf, it includes 23% VAT. If I fit it, there is 13.5% VAT. The 23% VAT rate is removed and the 13.5% rate is applied. If somebody comes in off the street and buys a solar panel at 23% VAT before getting his or her own installer, does the grant cover that? Farmers have many rooftops. We are talking about filling rooftops with solar panels, with which I agree. If a farmer is not registered for VAT, will he o…

What about supply and fit?

It is supply and fit, and not supply only.

Therefore it is 13.5% VAT and not 23%.

Benefit-in-kind is quite complicated. The Bill facilitates a temporary change to the regime for petrol and diesel vehicles, which make up the majority of company cars for employees who have experienced higher income tax liability since the start of 2023. I welcome the amendments the Minister was forced into making. Cars doing 50,000 km a year and with an emissions rating of 120 g will now pay a benefit-in-kind rate of 12% and then 15%, while the value of the vehicle will be reduced to €10,000. Finance means busines…

He does not have one.

The question I asked was whether the Deputy has an electric car.

The Deputy does not have one.

Does the Deputy have an electric car?

That is the only question I asked.

Is Deputy Healy-Rae convinced?

A single 1,000 lb EV battery takes about 5,000 lb of raw material to manufacture. To transition just our passenger cars to EVs, we need to mine more material over the next 30 years than we have ever mined in human history.

In order to make EVs, we must mine more material than we have ever mined before. What also comes into account with EVs is that they could not recycle the batteries of old EVs. Then they came out with new technology to upgrade the older cars with the newer batteries but the wiring loom would not take. The wiring loom in the car had to be changed to take the newer battery because the power of the newer battery would set fire to the older EV. These are the EVs they came out with first. I am not against EVs; I am for E…

A total of €8,000 a battery.

If you cannot afford it, you are being pushed out. If you cannot afford to change-----