There could be a perceived conflict of interest on some of these matters. As I have done before, I remind the Taoiseach that his remit does not stop at the Red Cow roundabout. There was much about rural-proofing Government policy in the programme for Government. In the past, the Taoiseach came in here and attacked our beef industry. He has abandoned our health service. University Hospital Kerry, for example, is continually having its status as a university hospital attacked by stealth. The Taoiseach should know a lot about rural general practitioners and other doctors. Owing to Government policy, they are finding it impossible to carry on servicing rural communities. Our pubs and pub culture are on their knees. Our post offices are hanging only by a thread because the Department of Employment Affairs Social Protection is still continuing to encourage people to get paid through the banks. All the Government is doing about housing is attacking a core of people who are doing their best to provide accommodation to others.

I thank the Deputy.

I am only at 36 seconds.

No.

The help-to-buy scheme has to be extended. No assurance has been given on that. The sick and dying are finding it impossible to get a medical card. These are all things-----

The Deputy has one minute to ask one question about one matter.

Yes, I will do that, so. I will condense my remarks into my next point.

The time is up.

During the negotiations for the formation of the Government and in the programme for Government, much was made about rural-proofing Government policies. The Taoiseach has done nothing to rural-proof the policies because what the Government is doing is attacking rural Ireland. The Taoiseach and his Ministers are attacking-----

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae wants to make a point on the same matter.

I do not want to wrong anybody. When I look at one man on the Government side - I do not want to run everybody-----

When we asked for the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Michael Ring, to do things, particularly in County Kerry-----

I cannot look at the Minister of State and say he let us down. I will not do that, or I would not do that to him.

I thank the Deputy. I appreciate that.

The Deputy is over time.

The Taoiseach will have to remember there is more to Ireland than Dublin. I ask him to remember that.

I thank the Deputy.

The Taoiseach agrees.

One of the things on which I insisted was that the local improvement scheme be included in the programme for Government. I appreciate that it was but, although there were 800 applications submitted before April 2018, funding has been received for only 26 to date. At that rate, it will take 30 to 33 years.

The Deputy wants it hurried up.

I want money for that scheme.

There is just one other point.

The Deputy may ask only one question.

The people on the roads in question, who are paying their property tax, motor tax and every other kind of tax, are as entitled to a road to their door as the people in Dublin 4.

The Deputy is not being fair to the other the Deputies who wish to contribute.

I thank the Deputies for their questions. All Government policies are both urban-proofed and rural-proofed because Ireland is both urban and rural. It is wrong to try to set different parts of the country against each other. What has the Government done? It has established a Department of Rural and Community Development, with a dedicated Minister for rural affairs, backed with a fund of €1 billion. A huge investment in rural Ireland is happening through that. We have restored the local improvement scheme and we intend, by the end of the year, to sign the national broadband contract, which will result in a €3 billion investment in rural Ireland, perhaps the greatest investment in rural Ireland since the investment in rural electrification.

Both Deputies were present for the negotiations on the formation of this Government, a Government that is now entering its fourth year, and they chose not to be part of it. They could have had influence but they chose not to have it.