My amendment is that I be allowed stay on the committee on agriculture. My understanding is that I was appointed as an Independent member rather than a Government or Fianna Fáil member.

Many people got packages over the past week or so. People with machines involved in the construction industry and the provision of services, whether pipelaying for water, electricity or telecommunications, use a lot of green diesel. To my understanding, they have not been included in any package. The cost of building and construction is going up every day but this has been exacerbated a lot further. I ask the Taoiseach to consider looking after those involved in services provision and the construction industry beca…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. It is the biggest wonder of the world when a baby is born to a loving couple. They look forward to raising the baby, bringing them up and giving that child the very best. Equally, it is devastating when they discover that something is the matter and that the child needs an assessment or whatever, and they have to wait so long. That is very hurtful for them because they have to fight for everything. They have to fight for primary school education and special needs t…

I am glad of the opportunity. It has been an awful time for the people of Ireland and it is not getting much better. Indeed, it has been an awful time for elected politicians, their families and workers. We were pegged around the place by friends and people of whom we thought a lot and people who thought a lot of us. We have been working for them for many years. I think it was what happened here on 24 March that kicked it off. There was a reduction of only 3 cent to help people with the cost of green diesel, which …

The Government's response to all the people of Ireland who are in trouble is to provide €755 million.

RTÉ is only one organisation or one company. It is not fair what is happening, or what has happened, to our people.

Did they help us when we were in trouble starving in the Famine?

See after our own people first, please.

I am saying enough is enough. We are not in the war with Russia.

I stood here on 24 March when the Taoiseach and Government announced just 3 cent of a reduction in the cost of green diesel and 2 cent on kerosene. I begged the Government from where I am standing now to listen to me and to come in and address it the following week. I said if it had forgotten or did not understand, I was pleading with it to rectify it. It was allowed to carry on and it went from bad to worse when a Minister gave €40 million again to Ukraine in the middle of it. It was like throwing gallons of petro…

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak about An Garda Síochána today. I thank it for its great work in Kerry. It is a massive county and the distances are very great around all the peninsulas and everything. We have to thank it especially for making progress in connection with the murder of Michael Gaine. We welcome this and hope that it continues to bring this to the conclusion desired by many people because Michael Gaine was loved and appreciated first of all by his own family but also by the vast number of fr…

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak again on this very important and emotive subject. While I thank the Government for the positive elements with the increases and the help it is giving to some of the haulage industry, a great portion of hauliers will not benefit from the tax rebate because they do not have a haulage licence. Even the live exporter members who were in our committee a while ago will not benefit from the rebate. They will benefit, of course, from the reduction at the pump, and I asked for that…

I am against that as well.

I too welcome the package of €235 million. I am thankful for the reduction in white diesel for hauliers and the promised rebate that is to come. I also welcome the petrol reduction for all of those who are working hard and need their car to go to work. I deplore the fact that people who need heating oil only get a reduction of 2 cent a litre, which is only €20 for a fill of a 1,000-litre tank. That is very hard. I welcome the extension of the fuel allowance, but many people are not on the fuel allowance. Many hauli…

Like every other county in Ireland and, I suppose, other places across the world, Kerry has its fair share of cancer patients. Sadly, many people have passed on at a young age as a result of cancer. As a public representative, I come across more than my share of these patients from day to day. Kerry is lacking in many ways because of the distances involved. A person with cancer who lives in Cahersiveen, Dingle, Lauragh or other places nearby is 50 miles or 60 miles from Tralee, in the first instance, and over 100 m…

The other thing we must look at is what is causing it. I have been saying that the South American beef is not vetted in the same way as Irish beef, and I am worried about that.

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk again this evening on this. I am sorry if I will be repeating some of the things that Deputy Fitzmaurice raised. It is because we are involved with the same kind of people and we are feeling for some of the people that have not been properly seen after here today. I welcome the good points that have been brought forward in relation to the white diesel and for the reduction and rebate for those who will qualify for it. Many hauliers who are very important people and who do gr…

Like all the rest of the country, the people of Kerry are suffering with the exorbitant cost of diesel, petrol and heating oil. It has come to my attention that, in Northern Ireland, it is 30 cent less per litre. As the Government is taking in almost €40 million extra in taxes a week, I am asking it to reduce the price at the pump by that amount for the people who are using it. I cannot understand when the Minister says the Government will target certain people. Every man and woman with a wheel and an engine is aff…

It must do something to rectify this situation. It is very serious.

The sooner the Government does what I am asking it to do, the better because people are going under every day with the cost of fuel on the road. Any man or woman with a wheel and an engine is already being kicked very hard at the present time. It is reported that the Government is taking in €40 million a week more in taxes. I am asking it to give that back. The Minister, Deputy Jim O’Callaghan, said today that it would be given back in targeted measures. I am asking the Government to give it back at the pump where …