MICHAEL HEALY-RAE has criticised Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for failing to hold talks on forming a government three weeks out from the election.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, the independent Kerry TD said: “It’s ridiculous to think that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have not got their heads together, even if it was only to say ‘We can’t come out and find common ground’. That would in and of itself be helpful.
“But the fact that they are standing back from each other, it reminds me of a boy and and a girl at a dance wanting to go with each other, thinking it’s the right thing to do but not having the guts to cross the dancehall and catch hands and go away into a corner together.”
Earlier the Sunday Independent reported that Healy-Rae might be appointed Minister for Rural Affairs by Enda Kenny if he backed a Fine Gael-led minority government, while Roscommon TD and Independent Alliance member Michael Fitzmaurice could become Minister for Agriculture.
Healy-Rae downplayed the potential of him getting a seat at cabinet, but said a Minister for Rural Affairs is needed.
He stated that the outgoing government “lost the election” in rural Ireland.
They lost sight of rural Ireland … there are major problems in rural Ireland, whether it’s the protection of our post office network, whether it’s opening up a garda station that should have never been closed, broadband, mobile phone coverage, all of these issues.
“There is a world beyond the Red Cow Roundabout and we want to improve the lives of the people living in those areas,” he added.
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