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MICHAEL HEALY-RAE has said that his father Jackie, who passed away in December, has left an impressive legacy.
The independent TD spoke about his father’s achievements, and detractors, during an interview with TheJournal.ie:
Video: Michelle Hennessy/TheJournal.ie
Jackie quit Fianna Fáil after decades with the party when it failed to nominate him as its candidate in Kerry South in the 1997 General Election. He went on to serve as an independent TD for Kerry South until 2011, when Michael took over his seat.
Healy-Rae Jnr told us he has “nothing but the utmost respect for Technical Group and their whip Catherine Murphy” but has no intention of joining them or the new Independent Alliance.
I don’t need to be a part of a group to be effective for the people who I represent.
Healy-Rae said that being a TD in Dublin is “a completely different job” to being one in a large rural constituency.
While Deputies in the capital can often walk from one engagement to another, Healy-Rae said his “next meeting could be two-and-a-half hours away”.
“My car is falling asunder from the height of tearing here and tearing there, but that’s fine.”
The TD said he has taken part in reality TV shows such as At Home with the Healy-Raes and Looking After Number One in order to give people an insight into the lives of politicians, as their perceptions may be incorrect.
Healy-Rae said there was “nothing put on or nothing set up” in these programmes as he wanted to “let people see what the life of a politician or a political family in a setting such as ours” is like.
Before taking over his father’s seat in the Dáil, Healy-Rae served as as councillor with Kerry County Council for several years.
So if he didn’t work in politics, what would he do?
Well my job is driving machinery and that’s what I did all my life and it’s what I was very happy doing.
When I was young, growing up, if you told me I’d be above in Dublin a number of days every week, I’d have said you were mad but nobody knows what’s around the next corner.
The only reason I’m here is because the electorate was good enough and kind enough to entrust me with their business.
New boundary changes will come into effect at the next General Election, making the whole of County Kerry one constituency.
Healy-Rae said any TD who claims they aren’t worried about losing their seat is lying, but added that his work record “speaks for itself”.
If he isn’t re-elected, he plans to keep busy:
I certainly won’t be twiddling my thumbs because the one thing that I like to do is to make the most out of every day. This is not a practice run. Every hour that you have you’re never again going to get that hour back.
“I believe that every person should use themselves to the best of their ability at all times and use their head and use their mind and use their back and their hands and their legs to the best advantage every day, because we won’t be here again.”
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Did they ever find out who made the 3636 calls from Leinster house which cost €2600,
Which helped Michael Healy-Rae win that reality TV show?????….
It’s a mystery that will never be solved…
Did his father not hold the country to ransom to get the hospital in Kerry
Whats wrong with getting a hospital for the people you repersent
There is a problem getting a hospital & many other things that were badly needed in other areas that had serious problems. The Healy – Raes always only thought about number one- themselves !
Fairness Francis.
Short term gain long term loss Francis.
Peter if all our politisions repersented the people that voted for them instead of looking after there friends and the ALMIGHTY PARTY then this country would be a much nicer place to live and we all might get a slice of the cake instead of the crumbs
Francis the one thing wrong with our political system is parish politics.if you can’t see why you’re a lost cause
It’s just like being in a busy bar trying to get a drink. The waiter has limited time to serve and he who shouts the loudest gets served.
The ultimate attention seeker – there’s something about that guy that just doesn’t ring true
That picture of them at the protest could simply have the caption: “Ireland”
Ireland circa 1950!
“My car is falling asunder from the height of tearing here and tearing there, but that’s fine.” said Michael Healy Rae as he cashed his €4478,75 cheque for 12 days in the Dail.
Shameful.
Healy-ray & proven fraudster Lowry are both guilty of the most monstrous self serving parish pump politics getting a few scraps to keep bertie/FF on their power trip, healy-ray got a few sweeties for Kerry while the rest of us got national bankruptcy as a result, well done J.H-R.
And where that leaves tony gregory of course thats Dublin dont do parish pump politics in dublin
Tony Gregory was the slicker urban version of Healy Rae.
Same lot who said having a few pints and driving home is grand and driving down the back arse of beyond too.
Its the blood/alcohol reading that counts. All Healy Rae was looking for was the limit to be the same for a van as a car which I can’t see any problem with. How the fukc can you be under the limit for driving a car yet more than twice over the limit for the same model in a van? The RSA are the real idiots.
There are different rates of allowable blood alcohol if you are driving a van rather than a car? What are they?
He’d want to change that car alright if its taking 2 1/2 hours to get to a meeting ;)
@Mark,
Massey Ferguson’s aren’t known for their speed…but the tax is cheaper and can run on green diesel.
Has it a valid NCT cert since its in such bad order…. TDs regard any car over 3 years old as bangers..
A typical Dail waster. Out for himself and got caught fiddling the tax payer, like father like son. Media mungrels.
Cute hoooor , him and his old man. Parish pump politics is alive and well.
No dope
Got the people of south kerry to elect them on several occasions
If all the politions were doing their jobs as well as the Healy rates we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today
Theme music to Dallas comes to mind
The Healy Raes are stage Irishmen at their best, and people see nothing wrong with it. Did they not want special exemption for drunken drivers in their area also-some of them must have a pub.And is the accent put on ?
If he wasn’t a TD I’m sure a job could be found for him at the family plant hire business, Ran by his brother Danny and nephew Johnny (both Kerry CoCo councillors) who got over 300k in contracts from Kerry County Council.
no vendetta everyone just though he was an idiot thats all
Or, if he wasn’t a TD, he could be a County Councillor, where him and his brother (Danny, again) claimed a combined €196k in pay and expenses in 2008/2009 (the plant hire company had got 600k+ in contracts from Kerry CoCo in 2008)
His father propped up a crooked government by demanding hundreds of millions be spent on what are really needless vanity projects in Kerry.
The bypass in Castle Island must be great for all the young Kerry people leaving to work in Cork, Dublin or abroad.
They are not the Kennedy’s you know…
All the parties seem to smell April blood and are electioneering already?
Parish pump politics has this country wrecked for years, but to be fair I would blame the system and not those who are adept at playing it. I always thought we were getting reform from the current Government to sort this but wechavent
Nothing new from Kerry but they’ve just played the same game as every other politician.Their just more flamboyant than most.
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