Healy-Raes 'putting on a political costume' to appear working-class - Labour TD

Michael and Danny Healy-Rae in front of the pub with posters over the door in Kilgarvan, County Kerry. Picture: Don MacMonagle

A Labour TD has hit out at the Healy-Rae brothers for "putting on a political costume" to appear working class.

In a heated exchange, Dublin Fingal TD Duncan Smith accused the Kerry TDs of being "sons of Fianna Fáil privilege". During the debate on a Labour motion on pursuing an aggressive Covid-19 suppression strategy, the Healy-Raes both criticised the party.

First, Michael Healy-Rae said that the party was "lost" and "does not understand work and business".

"The lost Labour Party, who are walking in the political wilderness and are just trying to make themselves relevant in the political landscape of today by bringing forward this motion because they are on the sidelines and wandering aimlessly, have no understanding whatsoever. For a party that was once a great party and had great people in it, they are today trying to scramble to make themselves relevant.

"They are not representing the workers, who are coming to us and asking how could this motion make any sense in helping them."

His brother Danny Healy-Rae also criticised the party.

"For instance, people trying to build their own house and getting in a carpenter or a plumber to do work to finish off a house are stopped at the present time."

Dublin Fingal TD Duncan Smith accused the Kerry TDs of being "sons of Fianna Fáil privilege" Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Those contributions earned a stinging rebuke from Mr Smith, who accused the pair of being more wealthy than any representatives in the Oireachtas.

"I am absolutely disgusted because it hit me personally. Usually, what they say is water off a duck's back to most or all of us in this House, but they had a go, and it was “the Labour Party this”, “the Labour Party that”, “relevance this” and “relevance that”. 

"They said we did not understand working people and said we did not understand a carpenter coming to the house to fix a job. I am the son of a carpenter. I am not the son of Fianna Fáil privilege and millions and millions of euro. I remember, as a kid in the 1980s, having to take any work going, hanging doors in Finglas just to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. I remember that. 

"I spent my teenage years working on sites, filling skips. Did they? Or were they driving their Mercedes into their big plant hire shops, walking past all of their machinery, worth hundreds of thousands, to count all their money, to count up all their properties?

"I am not going to be lectured on understanding workers. I do not have to put on a political costume and a caricature to pretend I am working class, like some. They do."

Danny Healy-Rae interjected saying that Mr Smith's claims "are not so" and later told Newstalk that the Labour Party had "drifted".

“I don’t go around in a flashy Mercedes and a flashy suit; you have to come up to Dublin to find these kind of lads with shiny cars and shiny suits.”