I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution to this debate. The debate on the scandals engulfing this country is time-consuming and is taking [830] away from the real issues that affect this country, the fall in farm incomes, rural development, health care, jobs and housing. These are the basic needs that the ordinary everyday person in this country is concerned about and they have not yet been discussed despite the fact that we are now back in Leinster House for two days.
This scandal would never have arisen if a number of people had not been promoted by the present Government as the prima donnas of the business world, out of whose book we were told we should take a leaf, because they were the people who set a standard and who had the ability to do what others could not. There are honest decent business people in this country and 95 per cent of business people are honest and decent and nobody should have any fear of doing business with them. They were picked on and were made feel in some way inadequate because they could not make the vast wealth that this small handful were capable of making. This small handful have turned out to be nothing more than conmen. The conmen at the fair of long ago, the smart alek with his three cards, produced the joker time and again when it suited him. The people gathered around him and placed their bets, but the joker was not there. The joker can take any shape, it could be a red brick building with "JMB" stamped across it or an old college with "CC" stamped across it or maybe a large lump of sugar. Whatever form it took it was a joker. It was placed where it could not be got at but was brought to light when it suited. The conman of old could not succeed and his business could not develop if he did not have his shill, the fellow who would come from the crowd when people were beginning to see that there was nothing to be made on this, and place his bet and make a vast amount of money. People would then become interested. He worked with a conman but was not seen to be associated with him. That is where the Government come in with their shill, these conmen, so-called businessmen, who were [831] trying to reap vast riches from the unfortunate taxpayers of this country. I hope we have seen the last of it and that they have been exposed for what they are. The Government have been found out to their shame and they are trying now to disassociate themselves from them but they will not get away with it.
However, I would prefer to spend my time talking about the real issues, the fall in farm incomes. The Minister, Deputy O'Kennedy, came into the Dil this evening but never as much as mentioned the impossibility of selling small cattle in the marts throughout the length and breadth of the country at present. Never in the history of this country was farm income so depressed, and I want to bring that to the attention of urban Deputies as well as rural Deputies, who are very much aware of it at all times. In the past if milk prices were low then the prices paid for cattle, pigs, poultry or turkeys were high. But at this stage everything has collapsed, and we have a Government that is seen to be completely inadequate to deal with the problems. That will not be accepted by the people of this country because the agricultural industry is the bedrock of this economy. There is an old saying that when the farmers are doing well, then the country is doing well. The farmers are not doing well and the country's economy has collapsed.
The scandal in relation to the eradication of bovine TB has gone on for too long - the disease has now been with us for more than 40 years and we are no further down the line than we were on the day we started. There is the problem of BSE, for which this country was labelled, when, in fact, only a few cases of BSE occurred here and they were found to have been caused by imports of either cattle or feed. However, the Minister, his officials and the Government have done nothing to make clearly heard abroad in the marketplaces of Europe and further afield the message that our cattle have a disease-free status second to none.
Then, of course, comes the scandal of jungle juice and angel dust being used to [832] boost the production of lean beef. Last July in the House I asked a question of the Minister in relation to this very serious problem. He assured me and the House that the problem was in hand and that there were adequate measures in the factories and abattoirs to detect the substances. However, ten days ago in a comprehensive, full page article published in the Irish Independent it was clearly stated, and has not been since denied, that the use of those prohibited substances is now as widespread as it was 12 months ago when it first surfaced. I should like the Minister to answer that challenge.
Confidence? How could one have confidence in a Minister or a Government who are so incapable of dealing with these major problems?
I should also like to know about rural development. The Taoiseach referred to the Structural Fund. I state here and now, clearly and categorically, that the Irish uptake of the Structural Fund is behind quota. Ireland is one of three member states in the European Community that have not to date taken up the quota of Structural Funds available to them. However, there is widespread demand for funding. The infrastructure of the country is in tatters; our county roads are impassable; small children cannot get to school without wearing wellingtons; school buses cannot traverse certain roads; doctors are refusing to call to homes because of the risk of damage to their cars - there is a litany of problems, and all because our county roads have been allowed to reach a deplorable state. Yet there is funding from Brussels available for the improvement and development of the roads. Why are the Structural Funds allocations being held up?
I shall tell Members why funding is being held up. I received information from Brussels that there is indecision within the Government between a Minister of State, Deputy Mary Harney, and the Minister for Transport and Tourism, Deputy Samus Brennan, as to whether a rail system should be set up around Dublin city or from Dublin Airport to O'Connell Bridge. That is one of the [833] most outrageous proposals I have ever heard. Dublin city is so adequately serviced in relation to transport - it has excellent roads, excellent bus services and a DART system that costs every Irish taxpayer "X" amount of pounds to be kept on the rails. However, the Government believe that a further rail system for Dublin city is a priority. As a result of that, allocations from the Structural Funds are being held up in Brussels. That is a serious challenge and I stand over it, but I also say that the Structural Funds were never intended for the development of the large urban areas. To my knowledge and to the understanding of the people of this country who turned out in their hundreds at parish meetings with ideas of developing their holdings and their private homes for further income, these funds were to be spent in rural Ireland. Lo and behold, the Fianna Fil/Progressive Democrats Coalition Government say that there are no votes in rural Ireland, that it is better to plant it, that it is easier to look into the woods than it is to canvass them and that the money should be spent in Dublin city, where the population and the votes are. They have forgotten about rural Ireland; they have forgotten that there is life beyond Phoenix Park. It is a sad state of affairs that the Government are creating a rural/urban divide in this country and in this House. I do not like that division, it is wrong and it should not be allowed to happen. But if that is the way the Government face up to the decision then let us, the rural Deputies, speak with one voice and demand that the rural areas get their fair share of the national cake and that all parts of this country - be they on the east coast or the west coast - are developed to the same level. What is fish for one should be fish for the another.

Indeed, and I shall come back to it. I wish to mention in passing the standard of Irish health care. It is now a fact that people over 80 in this [834] country are not wanted and have no place if their families cannot look after them. All over the country there are waiting lists for the county homes, and when old people arrive at their doors the message is: "Sorry, we cannot take you in, we cannot afford to look after you.". It is not good enough that that is the message given to people who have given their lives to this country. It is an indictment of the Government and their past record.
I have no confidence in the Government. They should do the honourable thing, move over, let us take over and we will do the job.

