With the amount of stepping in and stepping out again, they could have reinstated the dance floor in the chamber of Leinster House.

There is an old saying in rural Ireland that the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. These are wise words that were never lost on the Healy-Rae political dynasty from Kilgarvan in Co Kerry.

Kerry County Councillor and publican Danny Healy- Rae has been summonsed for allegedly having his public house at Main St, Kilgarvan, open after hours on two occasions.

Not even the rise of Sinn Féin, which took the last seat in South and West Kerry and out-polled Labour in the Killarney area, could dwarf the gigantic performance of the Healy-Rae organisation.

Health Minister James Reilly, on a breakneck trip to the South-West for a number of pre-election duties yesterday, denied he was being "held back" by Fine Gael strategists because of a perceived lack of popularity.

A firm owned by Kerry county councillor Danny Healy-Rae and his wife, Eileen, was the highest paid plant hire and haulage contractor to Kerry County Council, last year.

A politician whose family is also in the plant hire business has said they currently have no tender for roadside hedge-cutting contracts with the local authority, of which he is a member.

YOU wouldn’t put it past Michael Healy-Rae to try to turn events of recent days to his own advantage.

The newly elected Charlie Flanagan has expressed a preference for Fine Gael to go into a coalition government with Labour.

Fine Gael's Charlie Flanagan has taken the first seat in Laois Offaly after the eighth count.

THE father figure might be retiring from local politics, but the Healy-Rae dynasty lives on.