Danny Healy-Rae blasts motoring costs, insurance and carbon tax

Thanks very much. I'm glad to get the opportunity. I want to thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion here before us this evening. And of course, mort and costs are affecting every man, woman and child on the road. And Kerry is a very diverse county. We have three peninsulas. And if you're going anywhere, it's a long journey and people can't manage their maroon if they don't have a car. And I start off with the young people, the challenges that they're facing with the cost of driving tests and the cost of lessons and all this. And they're doing everything right. And then they're being robbed by insurance. And we're all being robbed by insurance. And again, it comes down to the regulator. If we have a regulator, I don't know, he's not transparent anyway. He can't be seen or he's taking no action anywhere. And I have to say at this stage that the only time we got value for the money we paid for insurance when Sean Quinn was in the market. And God be good to him wherever he is because he created competition and he was wrongly blown out of it because I suppose there was too money against what he was able to do. And I'm sorry what happened to him because we were able to afford insurance at that time. The carbon tax, you see, the carbon tax was brought in for to deter people from driving and to use other methods and they'd have to use. And the remaining Green Party TD had the gall to say, start talking about the cost of motoring of the CV and the cost of insurance. He forgot to tell anyone that was he and his gang orchestrated the carbon tax tax. And ensured that so many, that was put in place for 10 years with the last government. I at no time was in favour of carbon tax. And I'm glad to see that there's more people joining me now against it, that there was no account of them in the very beginning. Because, and it's very unfair. And when I see fuel at the gas stations this morning coming up along the roads, it's gone up now almost to 180 and over 180 in many places. There's no need for a deterrent, an extra deterrent in the name of carbon tax for to stop, to try to deter people from driving because the fuel is dear enough. And we know that it is dear enough since the Ukrainian war, it has gone up and up and up and there's no stop. And it is, it's up and up. When it will come up today, it has gone up again, no going down tomorrow. So there's no line harder than it. And fuel in general, and the cost of motoring then, whether it is tyres, batteries, when fuel goes up, all the ancillary things like batteries and tyres, they are all gone up. The cost of passing in city, tis affecting every man, woman and child. And because some of our roads are not in a great state minister, we, the local authority and, and, and the department are doing their best. But despite all their best efforts, we've been claiming whether we rain on roads, water and, and roads have been constantly damaged and, and, and cars are affected and tis harder to pass the, the, the, the, the, the test. Then take the transport industry, what is costing them to be on the road. And likewise, all the tests, uh, the, to test any lorry now or a bus or anything, just three or four thousand euros for, to do small things, just to keep it going. You won't do any, make any wonder out of it. But, uh, and the cost of the fuel that they are paying each day and taxes, all the whole thing is driving up the cost of living. And the fuel is the main driver of the, of the, of the, for the cost of living going up. I have no problem in the world in saying that. And if there's any way that the carbon tax can be looked at because the D, the diesel and the petrol and all the oil is dear enough without, uh, driving up for the, for this carbon tax. And you see, we're being told, Minister, that is being put into the retrofitting of houses. Tell that to some old person then that, that's waiting for two and a half years to get, uh, an answer back from their CI. It's all a joke, Minister, and that needs to be, and they need to be made accountable. They'll answer no phone to any public man, whether it is a minister or whether it is a TD or whether it is a county councillor, they're not answerable to anyone. And two and a half years, they might come back and they might say, you'll get this or you won't get that or whatever. That's not fair. And that's not the way to run a country and to run a department. And it is very unfair what's happening with that money because it's, it's not doing what it should be doing according to the government saying what it's doing. It's not doing that. And I feel it is very disingenuous to the way we're treating our people on the road, the young and the old. They can't go anywhere or come anywhere if they don't have a car and just cost them the sun, moon and stars for to keep it going. There's a thing down in, in, in Tallarney, Minister, that we, we have been told that just wiped off the slate and that there's no account of it. The railway station and the bus station are side by side. And we asked for a bridge to link the two, or some connectivity to link the two. And instead of that, you'll get out of the train, we'll have to carry all our bags and baggages down past the Great Southern and out on the railway road, and up the, the, the, the, the, the, the street again then for to get into the bus. Likewise, if we land in the bus, it is totally and absolutely ridiculous. And the pouring rain, because it rains a lot in Kerry, I'm sad to say we get more than no share. We believe we're being wrong there as well. So I, I, I, I, I ask you, Minister, put this back on the programme for delivery, because the people have been promised it. We're not in the 1900s, now we're in the, in the 2000s, and I'm asking you to look at this favourably, because, because the people have been promised it. We're not in the 1900s, now we're in the, in the 2000s, and I'm asking you to look at this favourably, because it was on the pipeline and now there's no account in the world of it. What? All right, all right. So, let's go.