“People love them. They work hard. People see that they can deliver,” says Labour councillor Marie Moloney from Killarney.
The local politician is referring to not someone in her own party, but Michael and Danny Healy-Rae, the Kerry Independent TDs who withdrew their support from the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Coalition this week over the Government’s response to the fuel crisis and the protests over rising fuel prices.
But Moloney’s praise does not extend to the events of this week: Michael Healy-Rae made a mistake when he resigned as a Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and the Marine, she says.
“He made a bad decision. I think he is better off to be inside, in Government, and fighting for the people down here ... He should have explained to his people: look, while I don’t agree with what is going on; I need to be inside, to help you and to deliver to you,” she says.
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Ironically, that is exactly what Healy-Rae did in a video he uploaded on Sunday in which he sharply criticised the “hurlers on the ditch” who had been targeting his non-attendance at the fuel protests.
He had in fact attended one on that day, in Killarney, he said.
His non-attendance before that, he argued, was because he was “working tirelessly with my colleagues” on the Government package that had just been announced.
The package involved “real meaningful support” for the people he had been elected to represent, he said.
“While other people were staring into their phones and were saying horrible things about me – politicians I’m talking about – they were doing nothing for you, the people – I delivered. I’ve done my bit.”
A day after highlighting the benefits of being in Government, Healy-Rae resigned.
Healy-Rae is popular in Kerry. He topped the poll here in the last general election, in 2024, winning the second-highest number of first-preference votes in the State (after Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty in Donegal).
But his recent decision-making has not been that popular in the county known as the Kingdom. Some believe Healy-Rae was too slow in resigning when he left Government on Tuesday.
“He stood up to the Government and he went against them and I respect him for that, but he should have done it long ago,” says Killorglin man Michael O’Sullivan who has a small carpentry and building business.
He believes Michael and Danny Healy-Rae “could have done a lot of damage to themselves”.
“I think they have. They should have come out earlier and said it, weeks beforehand. They should have stood with the people.”
Pat Horgan, from Killarney, feels the same way.
“The fuel crisis didn’t happen overnight. He knew the state of the country, what people were suffering, and I believe he should have pulled it a bit sooner,” he says.
“But, having said that, at least he done it. He had the courage of his convictions, and he was thinking of the next election. That’s why he done it.”
A number of the people said the Healy-Raes were booed when they turned up at protests last weekend, with some referencing a video clip online showing Danny Healy-Rae in an angry exchange with a protester taking issue with TD for parking his car on the opposite side of the road to other parked cars.
“Danny turned up on the bypass, and he was told to park his car on the protest side or the other side, the Government side. So he moved it over,” says Horgan.
Sinn Féin councillor Robert Brosnan, from Lios Póil near Dingle, believes Danny’s decision to break with the Government forced Michael’s hand.
“I don’t think they really listened to the people at all for the previous week, but they came under severe pressure, eventually. They were missing in action as far as I could see – for about 20 days.”
The Healy-Raes are an enormously popular political force in Kerry and one of the most successful electoral dynasties in the country. The two TDs are the sons of a former TD, the late Jackie Healy-Rae who supported Bertie Ahern’s coalition government following the 2007 general election; three of their children are members of Kerry County Council.
Michael (59), reputed to be the richest TD in the Dáil, declared a significant residential property portfolio in his most recent declaration of interests.
[ Michael Healy-Rae: What does ‘Ireland’s wealthiest TD’ own and what is it worth?Opens in new window ]
As well as being a landlord, he owns land, a shop and petrol station in his native Kilgarvan, while a company he owns has received substantial income for the housing of Ukrainians.
No one interviewed by The Irish Times in Kerry this week raised the issue of his wealth.
Some believed the Healy-Raes should put more emphasis on the needs of the country, as against delivering for Kerry.
“I can understand why he resigned with the local pressure,” says Marion O’Connor, from Killorglin.
But I think if you are in Government, you have to be in Government in good and in bad times, and I wonder if he was in Micheál Martin’s shoes what would he do, how would they respond?”
She says in current situation politicians have “to see the big picture, and it is not an easy one to resolve”.
She didn’t agree that it was all the Government’s fault; “what can they do? Get a magic wand and resolve everything?” she asks.
Another woman in Killorglin, who didn’t want to give her name, said she was not a supporter of the Healy-Raes.
“I believe in Ireland as an entity and I don’t believe in just me féin, just Kerry, Kerry, Kerry, and not to look at the bigger picture,” she says.
“Everyone says [Michael] is a hard worker and a great worker, but my overriding reason is, you can’t be just local, you have to be the whole country.”
During the fuel protests the Department of Justice cancelled three days of citizenship ceremonies in Killarney due to take place this week, causing thousands of families to cancel planned trips to the town.
“The hotels are scrambling to find people to fill the rooms,” says a local trader who did not wish to be named.
“Rooms are being offered at [low] prices I haven’t seen for years.”
Fianna Fáil councillor Fionnán Fitzgerald, from Tralee, says he is sorry to see the Healy-Rae brothers end their support for the Government.
Michael’s resignation, he says, is a “great shock” to the people of Kerry.
“Each politician is acutely aware of the strength of their own voting base. A politician should know how far that base can be pushed before the tension becomes too great and support is lost,” says Fitzgerald.
“I think it became apparent over the weekend and into Monday that much more than the cost of fuel was at the heart of the protests and blockades.”
He believes “the Healy-Rae machine” became acutely aware that their base was in danger of becoming distanced from the two TDs.
“It may have seemed apparent that it was not going to stay the course through the next number of months and years,” says the Fianna Fáil councillor.
The cost-of-living crisis is making it very difficult to be a politician, says Fitzgerald, but he believes politicians should take the longer view.
“This is something as a country that we are going to have to work through, while I get the frustration, and I do get the frustration, on the part of people going about their daily lives.”
Until this week, Kerry had only one Opposition TD: Pa Daly of Sinn Féin.
Fitzgerald says politicians of all parties have heard the public’s criticism of late.
“All of us as politicians are hearing very clearly about the cost of living, the cost of fuel and the cost of going about your daily business. I think what is going on is that people have different views about how to go about handling it, he says.
Speaking to people in Kerry this week, it was striking how many said they were personal friends of Michael Healy-Rae.
In their home base of Kilgarvan, a woman who doesn’t want to be interviewed, says she has known him for a long time and considered him a kind man.
“I am devastated for him,” she says.
