Dáil Éireann is well accustomed to the strenuous “Dem up in Dublin” guff, which is regularly puffed up by the Roaring Independents. Frequent outbursts from Mattie McGrath and Healy-Raes are a familiar part of the parliamentary fabric.
For the most part, they allow this to continue. Senior government politicians know by now that the bait goes up to them only a como role as a stage worker in a production carefully constructed for local consumption.
Last year, Labor’s Duncan Smith lost his lips after a provocation too much, as the Healy-Rae brothers said his party had no understanding of the lives of working people like carpenters and plasterers.
“I’m absolutely disappointed because it hit me personally. Usually what they say is water from a duck back for most or all of us in this house,” Smith said.
“Well, I’m the son of a carpenter, I’m not the son of Fianna Fáil Privilege,” the Dublin Fingal TD smoked at the time. “I’m not taught to understand about the workers, I do not have to put on a political costume and a caricature to act as if I am working class as they do.”
He was angry. This was not manufactured outrage for the sake of column customs.
On Tuesday, it was Leo Varadkar’s turn to call one of these richly influenced boys off the ground. On this occasion, it was millionaire class versus middle class after Michael Healy-Rae embarked on a rant that went beyond the usual hysterionics, from the robust political to the personal and offensive crossroads.
It was not a case of water falling from the back of a duck. Tánaiste’s anger was immediate. His insult was not produced.
MHR is an excellent communicator, but on this occasion – unknowingly or otherwise – his words, quite clearly, caused deep insult.
If Healy-Rae were a mallard, he would have drowned a long time ago
When the sweet “Fyne Gale” leader immediately pulled him to his language choice, a wide-eyed Healy-Rae responded by looking slightly concerned as he was challenged. He does not seem to be aware of Varadkar’s unusually intense response, the anger evident in his voice and body language.
Pain Innocence
This distinctly sharp reaction prompted Mattie McGrath or Danny Healy-Rae, sitting on either side of the image of Michael’s painful innocence, not to be asked, perhaps, to whisper a quick word to their colleague while he and his acknowledged victim luxurious. Penny did not like them either – a smiling Mattie seemed to enjoy the theater, while Danny looked freely into the middle distance.
It all started when Kerry TD accused Varadkar of asking Taoiseach to answer Leaders’ questions, not answering a question he had previously been asked by Mary Lou McDonald. The Tánaiste said he believed the record would reflect that he gave a substantial response.
“The fact, MPs, that you do not like it or do not understand it is more a reflection on you than it is on me, quite honestly.”
Healy-Rae took offense at this. For a TD who knows how to do justice in the Chamber – and often does, he has a remarkably thin skin when the tables are turned. Water from a duck back? If he were a mallard, he would have drowned a long time ago.
How dare Leo Varadkar insult him, a simple Kerryman of enormous wealth who struggles hard to meet with nothing but the largest real estate portfolio of any TD in Dáil and a few oily gas pumps outside the supermarket to end.
He, Michael Healy-Rae, understands the simple people of Ireland.
“People can look at you and listen to you, or they can look at me and listen to me and let people decide who they think is more in line with what the people of Ireland demand,” he told Tánaiste, the voice rises in intensity.
“Because when I hear some of the nonsense you’re coming out with, my God, you’re not a man looking down at me, as if I’m doing something you’ve risen up above. I’m chosen here as well. You are, and you know, maybe a lot better than you are.
‘A bit of a big shot’
Remind us, Michael. Who was looking to look down here?
No. He is the normal and relatable one. “I would not dare to look at you or anyone else because I do not. But maybe you do because you’re a little big shot, “said successful businessman Michael, who’s more than a little big shot. And that’s not likely.
“But as I say, go with the fairies with you and see how far it will take you.”
And that’s the sentence that upset the Tánaiste, one of a small number of gay TDs and senators in the Oireachtas.
Words important.
It all started when Michael Healy-Rae accused Leo Varadkar of not answering a question he had previously been asked by Mary Lou McDonald. Photo: Tom Honan / The Irish Times
The MHR came at the end of its massive wing. “But one thing you can be sure of, it’s not nice to look down on me and say what you told me some time ago. Not nice. “
These words were important to Leo Varadkar.
The other things to do for the Green Party and pursue its agenda so that he can become Taoiseach, even if it means refusing people “the right to live” because he is doing “everything for power” at all costs will, was standard political struggle.
Leo got up quickly.
“It’s just not nice what you told me either, MP, just there, quite honestly,” he began. “Reflect on it and think about it.”
A few striped screams rose from the ground. There was no flooding for other deputies who listened quietly.
Bad protest
“Just think about what you said. Okay?” cracked the Tánaiste, raised his arm, and angrily pointed at Healy-Rae as he managed to raise a weak protest.
“But … no, think about what you said. Think about what you said,” Varadkar insisted, his voice shaking as he spoke. Healy-Rae tried to interrupt.
“No. No. No. Reflect on it. Think about it. Come back here tomorrow or the next day and take it back if you want,” he continued, slowly and consciously, very precisely inviting the TD to reconsider what he said.
He may have been thoughtless, but Healy-Rae was extraordinary. He should apologize
The Tánaiste went on, talking very quickly, stumbling over the words, excited. “Deputy, the truth is, you look down on me.”
MHR has a double take under his flat cap. Moi? As Leo Varadkar dared.
“You mean that because I’m from Dublin, because I’m middle class, because I do not speak as you speak and I have the accent that I have that I somehow do not understand right people. But you are wrong deputies. I am just elected as “Everyone in this House has a mandate. We have a mandate because the right people choose us and that’s precisely because we are here.”
The Tánaiste got him as good as he got. Healy-Rae said nothing.
Leo is followed by a heumaker.
Did not Michael Healy-Rae reject the chance of a ministry? “I was there in 2016.”
But instead “the truth is, you’d rather come here and do personalized excavations about the people in government than actually make difficult decisions that will cost you a few votes.”
Words important.
He may have been thoughtless, but Healy-Rae was extraordinary. He should apologize.
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