Michael Collins was born close to Clonakilty.

Not the one beside the Deputy.

No. Where Fine Gael was born was close to Clonakilty. He was born to the son of a farmer. Since it has come into government, for decades, Fine Gael has done nothing but close down farms around this country. We then go to Eamon de Valera, who was born in New York and raised in Bruree, County Limerick, and was for Fianna Fáil. Again, we look across the Governments over decades slowly taking out the people around the country. At one time, Fine Gael was seen as the farmers’ party, which it is no more, and Fianna Fáil was known as the workers’ party, which it is no more.

The Taoiseach talked to the previous speaker about building houses and building things in Ireland. The discrimination of this Government against people around Ireland is evident when we look at infrastructure. When we look at where the money is being spent on infrastructure around the country, we see that a lot of money has been spent within Dublin itself. The Government is supposed to reflect the country with regard to investment in infrastructure.

If the Taoiseach watches television during the week, he will see that the biggest polluter in this country - the Government has been roaring for years it is the farmers - is the Government itself because of lack of infrastructure. Sewerage systems that Governments have promised for 40 and 50 years have never been upgraded, which does not allow people to build in their own towns and villages. This is what I am talking about. We then look at Uisce Éireann, which is looking for €6 billion at the moment and it says it needs €120 billion to fix this. In Croom, despite €5 million or €6 million being spent on a water system, it is now bringing in trucks of water, six per day. It is costing €200,000 a month to bring water in, even though the pipe scheme is there.

We are talking about the waste of funds. We are talking about rebuilding Ireland. How can any business or person in Ireland have fairness if the Government does not give proper funding for infrastructure? It is putting the infrastructure into highly populated areas and discriminating against the rest of the counties of Ireland that want to prosper. People want to have a home in an area that is affordable for them. That is what we want. We have to share the infrastructure. I am also looking for accountability for where the funding is going. We are not getting value for money. It comes back to the Government itself to make sure the likes of Uisce Éireann are accountable for the funds they get. The problem is that they are top-heavy and we are not getting value for money, which means we build no homes. No matter what the Taoiseach says we are producing in this country, it is not for the country. It is for certain areas of the country, which discriminates against every working person in Ireland. We need to make sure they get homes in their own areas.

My party and this Government are proudly supporting farmers, rural Ireland and the agriculture sector.

We meet them on a very regular basis. I meet them on a very regular basis. I regularly met them with the Minister for agriculture as well. We took a number of decisions in the budget to further support farming and farmers, including making sensible changes to the residential zoned land tax and extending agricultural reliefs, which I do not believe every party in this Dáil would do. As recently as today at Cabinet, we established a commission on the issue of generational farming. As I visit marts and agricultural shows and travel around the country, one of the biggest issues I have heard is the importance of a farmer wanting to know that there is a future for a son or daughter who might want to take on the farm. We do need to do more on that, including looking at retirement schemes and the likes, so we are in the business of listening.

We are not in the business of talking down to agriculture. We need to be very clear that agriculture is not some "nice to do" thing that people in the countryside do. It is the backbone of the Irish economy. It is the part that does not leave when times get tough. It is always here and it needs to be treated with respect. I have never heard anybody in the Government suggest that the biggest polluter is agriculture. That is not borne out, as the Deputy correctly says, by any sort of evidence.

The Greens say it.

No, the Greens have never said that. I do not need to speak for the Green Party but it does not say that either because it follows the evidence. We saw figures published today that show more progress on emissions reduction, farmers yet again stepping up and, quite frankly, farming and agriculture making more progress than some other parts of our economy, which should be acknowledged as well. The biggest issue farmers are raising with us is the nitrates derogation. This is a very important issue and we must be ready to pull together as a country and don that Team Ireland jersey, the green jersey, to make sure we can retain the nitrates derogation next year.

We provided additional funding of €1 billion to Uisce Éireann as recently as the budget. This will help capitalise Uisce Éireann to meet many of the projects it needs to do. The Deputy mentioned some issues where he believes there are challenges in terms of delivery and I am happy to follow up on them. I am very happy to engage with the Deputy on these issues.

When it comes to infrastructure, we now have a real opportunity to invest significantly in water, energy and housing. I presume most parties have a view on what the €14 billion from Apple should be spent on. I think it should be spent on infrastructure-----

It is great that we have it. You guys did not want it.

We have it anyway - we can agree on that much - so it is now a matter of having a discussion about how to spend it. I am sure we will have that conversation again. That does provide opportunities in terms of how we will use that windfall tax revenue to invest further in infrastructure. I imagine we will have a longer debate in the not-too-distant future but I do not accept that this Government does not have a focus on rural Ireland and regional Ireland. I can point to countless examples of where we have positively invested in the cities and counties well outside Dublin, including the Deputy's county, Limerick.