The Journal Office received no countermotion.
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None. They are examining it, but they have not received it.
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I cannot do any more. That is the situation. It was not moved.
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Anois, we have the Social Democrats. Deputies Whitmore, Hearne and Cummins are dividing the time equally.
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I am delighted to be able to speak on this motion on the costs of motoring. There is a fair dollop of hypocrisy in it when we talk about carbon tax because there were only a handful of us who opposed it when it was introduced here in a sneaky way that involved ten years of annual increases without ever coming back before the House. Sinn Féin and others wanted higher carbon taxes. That can never be forgotten. Ar an gcéad dul síos, déanaim comhghairdeas le baile Chluain Meala agus leis an town bus, an bus baile. The TFI routes there do great work. The Clonmel town bus has been a major success but, as Deputy Healy said earlier, it needs to be extended, as I know it will, to Kilsheelan, Moyle Rovers and Ballyclerahan and out to the old bridge, the Raheen Road and parts of the town it does not service. There is also the bus ó Chontae Phort Láirge. It provides an excellent service freisin. It comes to Clonmel from Dungarvan four times a day. We are trying to get it to stop in Kilmanahan and Kilmacomma, which are both in County Waterford, but it is refusing to stop in those places. There is space. There is certainly loads of space in Kilmanahan. Kilmacomma is a big housing estate on the outskirts of Clonmel. Although it is in County Waterford, it is forgotten about in Port Láirge. They shop, go to school and do everything else in Clonmel so they need that connectivity. It is a great service and I salute the drivers. Everybody who uses it is very happy. It is an excellent service. That is good. I wanted to say that at the start. The whole cost of insurance rip-off is a joke. It is not being dealt with. The insurance companies are taking us all for a ride. There have been different investigations and schemes but it gets worse and worse. The driving licence issue is crazy as well. Although the waiting lists to get a driving test have improved slightly lately, it is just not good enough. The costs of the NCT and the CVRT are going up all the time. The roads are in a simply appalling condition in rural Ireland. It is fine to have the NCT when you are on tarmac surfaces in the cities, but you could damage your car on the way into the NCT. On congestion on the M50, the costs are staggering. Deputy Tóibín put them on the record. Last year, €4.1 billion was raised in taxes on the fuel we need to go from A to B, to school, to the doctor, to work agus gach rud mar sin. It is criminal to pay €1.4 billion in carbon tax. It is not going back into helping motorists. The toll companies are taking us for a ride. More increases are coming up again. They charge what they want. The M50 is a car park. I came through it one Sunday recently on the way to Monaghan and the traffic was at a standstill. It was the Sunday of the bank holiday weekend. I was very surprised. We need better planning there. I wish to speak about the rail service from Limerick to Waterford. I use the train quite a bit to come to Dublin. There is a good service from Cahir but not enough trains, especially for return journeys. The train goes to Limerick Junction and then to Dublin. The line from Waterford to Limerick needs a major upgrade, and many more services with better connectivity. New routes have been announced, including a service every half hour from Thurles and Templemore. We need something like that in Limerick Junction. Connectivity from Cahir, Tipperary town, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir is needed. I did see planning permission this week, thankfully, for an upgrade to Clonmel railway station. I asked the Minister of State to come and visit when he was in Tipperary recently but he did not have time. Maybe he will come again. The railway station is closed to commuters on the train or on buses. There are no toilets or anything else. It is a shameful situation. People expect that after travelling for several hours on a bus they would be able to use the facilities at the train station. It is the same in Cahir, Carrick-on-Suir and Tipperary town. That is not acceptable in this day and age. I also refer to the motorways, in particular the proposed M24 from Limerick to Waterford. Tipperary town is as bad as the M50 at times, as the parking situation is chronic and lorries go through the town. It is a major route from Foynes Port to Rosslare. We have to get it into the national development plan so that the footprint of that relief road will be built around Tipperary. We did it in Cashel. I was chair of the council up to 2004. Why can we not do it now? We should just build the road around Tipperary town. The route has been selected and there have been notices to treat and notices of getting ready. Why do we not do that in advance of the bigger project and relieve the town of Tipperary for the people to live, work and play? The fumes and noise are unhealthy, as well as the obvious delays with all the traffic bumper to bumper. That needs to be done. As I outlined to the Minister of State already, this is a licence to print money. What kind of planning do we have in Departments if we signed up to these agreements to allow them to continue to be privately gouging motorists? Motorists are gouged every which way - the NCT, road tax, and insurance. Deputy O'Donoghue announced astounding figures for Tipperary. There was a difference of €900 for people in Tipperary. I hope there are not more people claiming in Tipperary. I would not think there is. We beat him this year in the hurling and maybe he is having a come-back at us for that one. We stopped them getting five in a row. Anyway, next year is another day. We need to look at that. I, too, have had people come back from America and they cannot contribute to the economy here. They cannot go to work or to mass because they cannot get a licence. They left here and worked all their lives in America. They had licences to drive in New York and God knows what other places but they cannot drive here. We need to get with the picture here and get departmental officials to look at this. We are going to have to examine the working from home policy across all Departments. It is time this was stopped or sorted out because a fellow driving a machine or working in the county council or in many other jobs cannot work from home. We are going to have to be fair with people and pull our weight. We are falling behind. Denis O'Brien has said it and the Collison brothers said it recently. We need to be shipshape here and we are not.
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Could Deputy Healy-Rae slow down the bus please?
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For clarification, the Government is opposing the motion. There was meant to be a countermotion but there were some issues about getting it onto the paper. I do not know what the confusion was but-----
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We apologise for that. Anois, tá an t-am caite.
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In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 19 November 2025 - an tseachtain seo chugainn. I thank Deputies for their co-operation.
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