Everyone has a favourite political dynasty, and if yours is not the Healy-Raes of county Kerry that's the wrong answer. One of the ringleaders of this gang is Danny Healy-Rae, along with his brother Michael. The two, particularly Danny, have achieved a level of notoriety for their...interesting...viewpoints.
You may remember Danny denying climate change during a Dáil debate, saying "God above is in charge of the weather and we here can’t do anything about it". Citing one year during the 19th century, "when the sun didn't shine at all" before any sign of combustible engines, Healy-Rae had some choice words for the current carbon tax, questioning where the money is actually going. "It is hurting the young fellow going to work in the morning. It is hurting the fellow with a lorry on the road. It is hurting those with tractors on farms.”
He went on to justify his position on climate change by citing Noah's Ark, in an interview with Hot Press. "I'm basing my views on facts. The facts are there and history proves it. We had the Ice Age. We had Noah's Ark. We had all those stories. We've proof of the Famine in 1740, which was caused by two years of incessant rain,"
Lately, Danny called on the Taoiseach to send the army into Kerry, because of the problems with deer, saying that they were taking over. Then, of course, we have the classic drink driving comments from Danny's brother Michael.
When they really got strict on the drink driving laws, there should have been a common sense approach in rural areas whereby people could go out have a glass or two of beer and go away home. There was nothing wrong with it.
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Today Danny has come out with another classic line when speaking during an emissions debate:
Talk about compliance, if we were to comply it would only mean point thirteen of one percent in the whole wide world context , when you’re talking Ireland's complying, talk about the Japanese, they can’t see their own bellybuttons with fog and smog and the Chinese too
Going to hazard a guess here and say that this is the first time the phrase "belly buttons" has come up in a debate in the Dáil. You can say one thing for Danny Healy-Rae, he keeps things interesting.
