'They think they're God' — Kerry TD claims Government is biased against religion
Rural Independent TD Michael Healy Rae said it was 'absolute insanity' not to allow more than ten people to attend a funeral. File Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins
A rural Independent TD has accused the Government of displaying anti-religious bias.
Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae and his fellow rural Independents have called for the re-opening places of worship in time for Easter.
The Group plans to raise the issue in the Dáil, claiming Ireland is an "outlier" when compared to other European countries.
Under current level 5 restrictions, places of worship are only open for private prayer and services are held online.
Speaking this afternoon, Mr Healy-Rae said it was “absolute insanity” not to allow more than ten people to attend a funeral.
He said that he’s aware of instances where people have been unable to grieve properly with the rest of their family because they couldn’t enter a church under current regulations. He said that some in Government had been acting as if they were God.
"They think that they’re God and that they’re the superior person," he said.
“We are only small people in this world, there’s a greater person there.
Earlier, Independent TD Mattie McGrath said places of worship could be reopened with “limited and safe" numbers.
He said the people's right to worship was being "denied" and that their mental health was suffering as a result.
Mr McGrath told radio people wouldn’t congregate for discussion after Mass because they are “fearful” but “they need their spiritual nourishment”.
Mr McGrath believes it would be very hard to contract the virus, as most places of worship are quite spacious.
"I asked Dr Holohan for scientific evidence of the number of Covid cases contracted in these places and he couldn’t give them to me, he said he just dealt with the pandemic,” he said.
