The 70-year-old plant hire contractor was elected to the Dáil on his first day out in 2016. Danny Healy-Rae and his wife Eileen run the Healy-Rae pub in Kilgarvan village.

Two of their six children are Kerry county councillors. Johnny, who represents the Kenmare municipal district, is a key figure in the Healy-Rae Plant Hire company, a thriving civil engineering and machinery business with clients including Kerry, Cork and Clare County Councils and Uisce Éireann .

Daughter Cllr Maura Healy-Rae, a second-level teacher in Bandon, is currently mayor of Killarney Municipal District.

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Danny told voters in Kerry he believes “the climate is always changing”. “Climate activists are making hay out of recent flooding and storms happening worldwide,” he said. Squandering of taxpayers’ money, planning and tourism were other election issues.

The Healy-Rae brothers - he and his brother Michael who was also elected in the constituency - had sought Number One for themselves and Number Two for each other on the ballot.

Danny is credited with sorting cataracts for Kerry people by facilitating seats on buses to Belfast for the operation rather than remain on waiting lists.