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INDEPENDENT TD MICHAEL Healy-Rae has confirmed that he and his brother Danny met with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Dublin yesterday.
The popular Kerry TD, who received 20,378 first preference votes last week was re-elected to the Dáil alongside his brother Danny who was elected for the first time.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Late Late Show last night, Healy-Rae confirmed that he had been approached by Enda Kenny and had spoken to him that day.
“The Taoiseach coincided [us being in Dublin] with asking to meet us and we met with him for over an hour just to discuss,” he said.
Healy-Rae declined to go into the particulars of the meeting with the Taoiseach, but said that the ‘gist’ of it was about forming a government.
“The gist is he realises that there is a situation to be dealt with – that is forming a government and running the country,” said Healy-Rae.
What happened in the election? The Taoiseach went before the country along with Labour saying he wanted a mandate to run the country.
He lost the election; he and Labour lost the election.
Healy-Rae said that there was now a duty on every elected official to form a government and that meetings and discussions would have to take place in this regard.
“They’re all elected now, they all have their own mandate; they should be coming together – talking, discussing things and trying to iron out things and forming a government,” he said.
When questioned by host Ryan Tubridy on whether the brothers would find it easier to form a government with Fianna Fáil as they come from the same “gene pool”, Healy-Rae had this to say.
“Don’t mind your gene pool now for a minute.”
The people that voted or us – the good people that voted for us, they were Labour, they were Fianna Fáil, they were Independent, they were Sinn Féin – they were from every category.
We’re independent and we’re accepting the support we get from all quarters and we will do whatever is right and best for the people of Kerry.
Rural affairs minister
Michael Healy-Rae also spoke of the need to have a minister of rural affairs to look after and take care of people outside of Dublin.
“The first thing an incoming government will have to do is they will have to have a post for a senior Minister of Rural Affairs,” he said.
This would be to put an end to “this thing that the world stops at the Red Cow Roundabout.”
However, speaking today, Healy-Rae turned himself down for the role of the rural affairs minister.
Both the Healy-Rae brothers stressed the importance of a stable government throughout the interview.
“We want to have something that is going to be stable but we want it to be representative of the views of the people.”
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I like his idea of a Minister for Rural Affairs though i dont understand why he ruled himself out for the position. I look at all the villages around me that have lost Post Offices and Garda Stations and next thing the only shop shuts down.
Easier for him to be outside the tent and piss in and retain his seat
They’d hang the nation to get what they want for Kerry – just like their Daddy took those goodies to prop up Bertie Ahern’s government. Once they got their road and hospital he didn’t give a shite what budget he passed.
The Healy-Rae’s have always portrayed Kerry as being an underdog standing alone against ‘them up there in Dublin’ and using the ‘world stops at the Red Cow’ analogy. They repeatedly preach about putting the country first, about rural Ireland being left behind and this strikes a cord with their electorate. If anyone criticises them they take it personally and have no objection to saying this, but in reality anyone in the public eye tends to attract this sort of attention, rightly or wrongly, especially if they have a habit of saying controversial things themselves, just ask Bono. I doubt there’s a politician who hasn’t attracted similar attention at some point.
They have no issue with preaching while blackmailing governments to get roads, bridges, hospitals etc. for Kerry, it could be said their actions helped add to many of the problems elsewhere in the country. A little hypocritical and disingenuous of them?
Well you know what? No one else is looking out for us. If they have to twist arms to get a basic standard of living down here thats fine by me. Were it not for MHR and co we would have lost our only ambulance last year. Their interest in Kerry is disproportionate because the lack of interest by the government is staggering. Also… Literally the only time anyone in history has compares the HR clan to Bono.
The depressing thing about the healy rae is they’d probably get a 3rd candidate in with that many first preference votes.
Correct – the numbers do indeed stack up and with the benefit of hindsight they could have got a third candidate in. It was probably considered too risky at the time though.
@bingo, the ones that hang the nation are the ones who agree to give Kerry what they want for the Merc and fancy Office and extra Cash that Govt Ministers command in this Banana Republic. So jump off the bandwagon and put your brain into gear.
@Diana You are doing exactly what they do when presented with the truth, ‘and sure why wouldn’t we, haven’t the good people of Kerry been neglected by Dublin for long enough?’
Nobody is denying that the good people of Kerry have been neglected, but then so have the good people of Donegal, or Roscommon, Longford, Wexford, Monaghan, Galway, Carlow… The fact is the entire bloody country has been neglected and I guarantee, if you take the time to listen, everyone has a story similar to your own.
So when I say it’s a tad hypocritical and disingenuous of them to criticise governments and ministers for their lack of progress elsewhere in the country in tackling the Health System, or repairs to the road network, it is. These are issues they’ve helped create by blackmailing successive governments into ensuring they get what they want for Kerry, and that wasn’t entirely altruistic but self interest as last nigh illustrated. Danny had no interest in running, no manifesto, no agenda and only decided to do so literally at the last minute, on a whim. I made a mistake, they are no Bono, either of them.
Do you think the people of fDonegal, or Roscommon, Longford, Wexford, Monaghan, Galway, Carlow aren’t voting for their own equivalent of the Healy Raes? Everyone is going to do what they can to keep their local doctor, post office and school open. Sorry thats how it works. Or is it just Kerry people who don’t display the Christ like levels of altruism that you’re looking for?
You must have the brain if a gold fish bingo. The Healy rays dont have to “hang the nation” with the apes we have had in government the last 10 years and there mates ie. bankers and developers.
Well it’s true as its all about Dublin, the rest of the country doesn’t exist.
Didn’t they say that Dublin gets everything and the rest of the country is ignored. So in fact they are telling the truth.
They do very well what every other politician tries to do to lesser effect. They and their late father should never have to apologies for looking after Kerry. Nobody took umbrage at the late Tony Gregory cutting a deal to benefit his rundown constituency. He was admired for succeeding where the main parties did nothing. Representation is very important. Given the employment situation in Wexford I was surprised to see one Labour and two FG elected there. The Healy-Raes represented themselves and their constituents excellently on the Late Late Show.
As President Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what you can do for your Country!”
Enough with the F88kers in Dublin bashing / mentality!
Dublin people pay for everything they get!
We pay higher taxes on higher earnings, higher property tax rates, our taxes pay for your agricultural subsidies.
You send your kids to our Universities to be educated, to get “proper” jobs
There are more “country” people in top jobs in Dublin than the “Dubs” themselves.
A friend of mine worked in the TV license collections department many moons ago, who called to non-complying homes in Kerry, the answer he received at a number of premises was “go tell the F&&&ers in Dublin to pay it!”
What was appalling at the time was that the bulk of the license money was paying for transmitters for rural Ireland, people in Dublin paid for cable connections in addition to their own TV licenses – but here is a cohort of people who think they deserve everything for nothing!
Much of the tax generated in Dublin and other cities subsidies your existence, how much have the people of Kerry contributed towards their hospitals, roads, broadband infrastructure?
I think it is a slap in the face to the people of Ireland that Kerry would elect these two me feiners to parliament – looking to hold the country to ransom once more for elite services to a few.
If you want industry, build the infrastructure to attract it, but this might create problems /competition for the monopoly this family has on the kingdom of Kerry….
http://www.irishexaminer.com/election2016/election2016-news-and-analysis/danny-healy-rae-company-highest-paid-for-works-by-council-383865.html
We all pay for everything but the difference is thar we don’t get it outside of Dublin and the subsidies that the farmers come from Europe and it’s because farmers don’t get the adequate income as it’s cut and the subsidiary is actually a part of their own earnings. So no it isn’t free.
Rural people do not pay what city folk do.
2015 Property tax take in Kerry 15 million euro
2015 Property tax take in Dublin 86 million euro
Average property tax paid in Kerry 157 euro
Average property tax paid in Dublin 565 euro
http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/local-property-tax-october2015.html
Salary’s – urban – rural divide
29% of Dublin Salary’s above 65,000 euro
10% of Kerry Salary’s above 55,000 euro
http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/statistical-reports.html
A lot of services are barely economically viable in Dublin with current demand never mind rural operation.
We don’t have the population to support a lot of what we do have.
Some motorways in the country barely have 20 cars on them an hour at night
We need to have population centers to support the infrastructure of the 21st Century.
The people of Kerry should count themselves lucky there are cities within 100 miles of them with services as good as they are – There are places in America, Britain that don’t have the technology that is in some of the hospitals here in without a long haul flight!
A broadband exchange in Dublin can cost upwards of 100,000 euro and serve anywhere between 6-10,000 customers due to proximity
A broadband exchange in large regional towns of a similar cost (100,000 euro) may serve less than 1000 customers due to proximity issues. An urban salary would not be large enough to support the cost never mind a rural one…
Its not comparable to the olden days of ADSL over existing copper network – this requires some pretty expensive equipment and requires demand to push uptake.
It goes on the value of your home. That answers that.
In wages alone Dublin people pay more tax – as stated above:
Salary’s – urban – rural divide
29% of Dublin Salary’s above 65,000 euro
10% of Kerry Salary’s above 55,000 euro
http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/statistical-reports.html
Many Counties do not earn the revenue to support the services they already have!
Sending these two up to the “big smoke” to get some tarmac for Kerry is pretty daft when it comes at the expense of getting the latest 16 slice MRI machine into the country or latest cancer drug.
We’re all trying to pull together – for the greater good of our country
The legacy that their father actually left is nothing more than misery, for a meager 100 million euro of which he actually only got less than 10 million euro of:
Jackie Healy Rae supported a government that cost every working person in the country 26,000
euro in bailing out the gambling debts of a developer bank:
http://www.debtireland.org/news/2012/12/16/worlds-biggest-bank-bailout/
In Kerry 40,000 working people x 26,000 euro = 1.04 billion euros is what he actually cost the people of Kerry by giving his support to the FF gov back in 2007-2011
How much of that 10 million euro did companies owned by the Healy Rae’s secure through contracts with the county council?
To top it off, now the people of Kerry have elected his two sons
It beggars belief!
Rusty it goes to prove that Dublin is it and the rest of the country doesn’t exist with your kind of comments and so many comments from the Dubs on this.
In my opinion, Hell isn’t hot enough for the 2007-2011 government!
They destroyed our country
They destroyed our political system
They destroyed our banking system
How many people went to their deaths from the stress of debt
Bruce Springsteen “Death To My Hometown”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsjjE8jXDts
Well, no cannon ball did fly, no rifles cut us down
No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground
No powder flash blinded the eye
No deathly thunder sounded
But just as sure as the hand of God
They brought death to my hometown
They brought death to my hometown
Now, no shells ripped the evening sky
No cities burning down
No army stormed the shores for which we’d die
No dictators were crowned
I awoke on a quiet night, I never heard a sound
The marauders raided in the dark
And brought death to my hometown
They brought death to my hometown
They destroyed our families, factories
And they took our homes
They left our bodies on the plains
The vultures picked our bones
So, listen up my sonny boy, be ready when they come
For they’ll be returning sure as the rising sun
Now get yourself a song to sing
And sing it ’til you’re done
Sing it hard and sing it well
Send the robber barons straight to hell
The greedy thieves who came around
And ate the flesh of everything they found
Whose crimes have gone unpunished now
Who walk the streets as free men now
They brought death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown
Death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown
What exactly are you looking for Elizabeth?
you’ve gone on and on about rural Ireland being forgotten about – but what do Rural people want exactly?
We know rural villages don’t want the power lines that bring the energy that drives industry!
We know rural people don’t want Dub’s coming to live in your rural villages – My family and myself have personal experience of the relentless bullying and taunts when we moved briefly to Edenderry! My son was kicked and punched for being a Jackine, My wife told, “what are you doing coming down here!”
Hospitals are expensive high tech things now with big machines costing millions of euro and consultants costing hundreds of thousands of euro – They’re designed for urban centers for various logistics purposes – the days of local hospitals that were dangerously under equipped and under resourced are dying out – We cannot tolerate their failure rates anymore. Every man, woman and child on the Island deserves better!
Community shops are the way forward
Add insult to injury –
Surprised you missed this today journal.ie
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/maura-healy-rae-to-take-over-father-dannys-council-seat-724076.html
We live in a backwater….
With his brother being elected
Danny is the only “Rae-Nua” in the Dáil….
(credit twitter for that one)
Very good.
They could form a party called Healy-Rae-Nua
Great honest interview. Wish we had the same passionate TDs in Dublin
Hahaha obvs don’t know about these two. Their bloody cowboys the pair of them. Ohhh how we are such sicker. Sweet talkers and we’re hooked. Bit like ole Bertie if one recalls.
@Christy
That’s why MHR got more first preferences than any other td in this election.
can you imagine if every td behaved like these charlatans – everybody would be at the top of the hospital or planning waiting lists with motorway quality roads in every housing estate, but there would be no hospitals or roads to get to the cities that have them. you can see what is wrong by that tweet from a Kerry person living in dublin, they are happy to see resources go from lighting and gardai on the beat in the cities they live in, so that their holiday home has a bloody post office that they will never use. another one mentions that beyond the schtick and flat cap, they are clear and articulate – luckily, most people see behind both these and the “doing it for the people” rhetoric as chancers using provincial prejudice to enrich themselves and their families.
Every politician puts their constituents first. They are the people they represent. Nothing worse than voting for someone that just toes the party line on issues. Rural Ireland sees the party line as the Dublin agenda.
party line politicians are just the same, but at least work to a plan (to adhere to a programming for government). healy rae, lowry and their ilk have shown that their priorities are self, parish & county only. only difference between them and whipped politicians is they slip the “party” somewhere in there. The sake of the country, and indeed the world (Irish politicians have a chance to be represented on the eu and world stage, but balls that up). And get off your high horse, how many elected TDs are from Dublin and have some sort of link with the area? this is a national parliament, not an elect your local crony – party or not.
Alien8 __ If the usual party politicians got their fingers out in Kerry, the Healy-Rae’s wouldn’t have been elected. I think that most of the politicians in Ireland put their constituents first, and can’t possibly spend all of their time dealing with the national or international aspects of politics.
If H-Rs got rid of the hat, and stopped with the cringe-worthy fake boggery, they’d get more respect from the rest of the country.
They don’t need the respect of the rest of the country. They have the respect of those who matter most. Their constituents.
Not all of the Kerry constituents voted for them.
No matter whats said about the two lads, one thing for sure is that they will get things done for Kerry, I wish we had someone in dublin that was that compassionate!
Do you really think things are not done for Dublin that’s laughable.
Colette, unemployment is static in there south west, whereas it is decreasing in the cities. in Dublin, the representatives cover a vastly diverse population (including a large number of kerry, and other people who seek employment that they cannot get locally), and have to work together for the whole 1m people, not just their local guy, otherwise there would be no infrastructure to get here, and jobs when you do.
I wish the Healy Rae’s were running the country. They’re imminently more intelligent than enda and i’m thoroughly sick of him and his lot at this stage.
Great interview.
Although I noticed there were two girls in the audience, one of them foreign and her friend the Irish one had to translate what was being said for her. Rather amusing.
‘Some of them Dublin politicians think Ireland ends at the Red Cow Roundabout’ (Rind-a bite – for Dubliners)
Haha.
Classic.
The Really Hayes will do a deal with anyone who advances the Kerry cute hooorism and to hell with the rest of the country.
I’m hearing rumours of the ring of Kerry being upgraded to motorway status and a tunnel to Dingle from Killarney!
Well inside the pale have been saying “to hell with Kerry” (and other rural areas) for long enough.
And there was me thinking that two thirds of TDs came from outside Dublin!
And how many of them stood up for rural communities?
Why in the name of God would one put a tunnel between Killarney and Dingle and lose out on one of the most scenic areas of the Country I.e Inch, have you ever even driven that route? Goes to show how much you know about the area!
Wooooosh
These two are political mercenaries. They may secure a better deal for kerry but will go into govt with anyone to do so. Regardless of what the government does to the rest of the country, these two will be elected for whatever new bridge is built or what pothole is fixed.
Wish we had them so
Bridges and potholes.
Trams and undergrounds.
Take your pick.
And what is wrong with that? They are elected to get things done for the local area and that is exactly what they will do and rightly so. If it wasn’t for them would a politician in D4 or elsewhere care about Kerry? Doubt it.
Take your shovel too
I take it you would prefer intellectual boys and girls who fill the back pockets of their rich friends DOB and co
Neil, no they are elected as national representatives, we elect councillors for local issues.
They were elected by Kerry people to represent Kerry’s interests
Doing their best for the people of Kerry does not necessarily mean that they do not consider the National interest. With all of their begorrah and playacting they are still smart enough to know that a rising tide raises all boats, including their own.
Wayne they were elected to represent the people of kerry by the people of kerry. members of the goverment represent us on a national level, there’s alot of tds sitting that would do absolutely nothing for the people who elected them!
No they are elected bye the people of Kerry,to represent those interests at a national level, to benefit all the people of the state. Not to benefit the people of Kerry, to the detriment of the national interest
So every TD is elected to run the country? That’s what a government is responsible for. Local TDs represent local people & local needs Wayne.
Wayne prefers to elect the types who have the national interest at heart. The national interest of Germany that is.
No that is what councillors are responsible for the Oireachtas (Irish legislature) not local legislator
As a Castlebar person Enda did SFA for the town, shocking really considering what Ringer got for Westport.
to be fair, Ring only dipped into the national lottery funds – you know the ones that were to improve sporting facilities nationally that went as crony as you like to Westport. He got elected as well … no difference between the Healy raes and him, willing to steal money from the country with the Albert Reynolds excuse of “it was there to take”.
Well the D4 crowd have done a good job for those living within the pale
Really Tim, currently Mayo gets 6 times the lotto funding allocation as Dublin. Despite have 1/10 of the population. Mad that
Only Good Thing About Kerry Is The Road To Dublin
Why are these guys laughed at while Tony Gregory is hailed? Difference is where they are from and their accent.
As far as I know Gregory didn’t personally enrich himself as that family have done.
McGrey, rurals don’t have the same scruples as most Dubs.
Fair play to the two of them,no doubt Kerry will benefit from their dail presence..but..doesn’t it demonstrate the necessity of perhaps introducing a list type system for the NATIONAL parliament..too many councillors who only want to represent the locality…
If only we had anything like them in Cork North Central
Newsflash for the slack jawed yokles, politicians can have both local and national interests at heart, prime example Catherine Murphy. But unfortunately this requires a certain caliber of politician, if the heavy-raes are the best Kerry can produce then I despair.
Yokel- learn to spell before you insult someone or you are the ignoramus!
*calibre
They’re very entertaining, in a Donald Trump sort of way.
They’re a lot smarter (and less dangerous) than Drumpf.
Since the Healy Raes are only interested in Kerry and nothing beyond that and the people of Kerry voted for them knowing that, who is with me in starting a BOYCOTT KERRY campaign? God help the country if either one of them ever got a ministerial post.
You work away on that tony we’ll follow you later
Delighted to have your support Mick:-)
The people of Keerry need a different kinda liar from the rest of us
There will soon be bye pass roads around every town and village in Kerry!
Kerry v Tipperary , Chalk and cheese, good luck to the lads
Most Kerry folk would rather bypasses in county limerick now such as Abbeyfeale, NCW and Adare. The latter is in the planning stages
Healy Rae turned himself down for Rural Affairs minister, why? Good idea, why not implement it, or will he be too busy going to funerals and campaigning for the next election,
Will ye just google “expenses”, “phone calls” and “Healy are plant hire” in conjunction with these lads and let me know if ye change any opinions ….
Eye opener there Damien,their politics stop at the Kerry border,but their personal accounts are more diverse.Parish pimp politics at its finest.
Great RTE & Journal “journalism”. The single most important fact about the Healy-Raes ID that they personally benefit from these “deals” through their private business.
Like all the newer parties who’ve emerged, everyone is full of talk but all are terrified to actually go into government in order to safeguards their jobs and big salary. All as bad as each other!
I don’t know.
Must be very time consuming running a kingdom all the same.
Haely raes not afraid to go into government. They wont go into government to sit on the backbench and vote to support a Government who abuses rural Ireland.
If the Government wants their support their demands are simple. Support Kerry and not forget about it as usual.
IrishGravyTrain, “The first thing the government will have to do is appoint a minister for rural affairs” yet the Healy-Raes turned themselves down doe that position.. Sounds like they don’t want to make the tough decisions yet reap all the rewards of being a TD.
“Hiding behind a fools face” comes to mind.
Having seen that interview, I’m sure that Danny was pissed out of his mind on the show, incoherent and glassy eyed. Wonder who drove home.
@Sean Brennan, actually Danny doesn’t drink alcohol, wish people would get their facts right before leaving untrue comments on here!!!
Sarcasm Bernie , look it up
Anyone who goes into bed now with F.G. will end up like Labour at the next election…
They will be looking to build a bridge from Kerry to New York without any tolls and you can have a tipple while driving
This is all returing to same old, same old. Any independents who do a deal with the main parties will soon be swallowed up. If the larger parter is successful they will get the credit. Ireland thn reverts to its default position.
FG and Labour both lost the General Election because they either refused to or were incapable of listening to the electorate.
Jasus you d swear Kerry was some sort of heavenly metropolis where everyone is happy and the children play in flowery meadows with gum drop smiles all because of those Healy Rays. Kerry haven’t got anything any other county in Ireland have got outside Dublin which is sweet f all.
We have won Sam Maguire 37 times, are one of the most scenic Counties in Ireland, have a thriving tourist industry which is helped by the Wild Atlantic Way and the welcoming nature of Kerry people in general, and the location of some major films. What we lack in infrastructure and industry, we more than make up for in other ways, so I think we have a little bit more than a lot of other Counties, a bit unfair to say we have sweet f..k.all, I take it you will not be holidaying here anytime in the near future???
What you on you ejit. I am saying this government only looks after the people of Dublin and I can’t undestand how people think kerry have got anything out of them that any other county have got.
My apologies, I took your comment as having a dig at Kerry.
The Healy-Raes are ‘boggers’ who only look out for the thicko’s in Kerry yet Tony Gregory was the people’s hero up in the Pale, funny isn’t it.
All I can say is fair play to both men, and I’m from the Rebel County. They talk a lot of sense.
How can people vote for Dumb and Dumber i don’t knoe.
I suppose pot holes count when it comes too election because they do nothing for Ireland.
Is he just bald, thick or both?
my god……whats around the corner for us all ?
Does he sleep with that hat on as well?
have your say