Kerry County Councillor Danny Healy-Rae has put forth new legislation that would grant people in isolated areas in Ireland special permits that would allow them to drive after consuming some alcohol. The new measure has since been widely criticized as “dangerous” and “ridiculous.”
Speaking to The Journal on Tuesday, Councillor Healy-Rae explained his proposed measures were meant to help “those people in every parish who are isolated and who can’t get out of their place at night”.
“A lot of these people are living in isolated rural areas where there’s no public transport of any kind, and they end up at home looking at the four walls, night in and night out, because they don’t want to take the risk of losing their licence.”
The motion put forth by Danny Healy-Rae calls for the Minister for Justice to permit Gardai to issue special permits to people in the most isolated parts of Ireland, such as around Healy-Rae’s constituency in Kerry, that would allow them to drive after drinking some alcohol.
The motion passed on Tuesday afternoon in Kerry with a vote of 5 in favor to 3, with 7 people abstaining from the vote, and another 12 people absent.
“The pub is invariably the only social outlet left in rural Ireland and they’re getting scarce now – just one or two in every village,” Healy-Rae said.
“I see the merit in having a stricter rule of law for when there’s a massive volume of traffic and where there’s busy roads with massive speed. But on the roads I’m talking about, you couldn’t do any more than 20 or 30 miles per hour and it’s not a big deal. I don’t see any big issue with it.”
Ireland introduced lower alcohol limits for drivers and alcohol checkpoints which have in turn seen the level of fatalities on Irish roads drop significantly over the past five years. In October 2011, alcohol limits were reduced from 80mg per 100ml to 50mg/100ml, and to 20mg/100ml for drivers on their learners’ permits.
The year 2012 saw the lowest amount of road deaths in Ireland and showed a welcome 56 percent decrease since 2007.
Referring to the legislation that helped curb road-related deaths over the past few years, Healy-Rae said "That law was put in place and there was no debate. It's unfair that the same rule applies to someone driving a tractor as someone driving a coach or a lorry carrying a 30-ton load."
Under Healy-Rae’s legislation, he envisions drivers managing tractors or other machinery that wouldn’t be capable of high speeds, especially on desolate rural roads. He also sees the limit to be around two or three pints of alcohol.
The Kerry County Councillor did acknowledge that his legislation that wouldn’t be suitable for the entire country: “A blanket rule for the country will not work. You can’t paint the whole country with the one brush and hope that everything works out.”
Behind the new legislation is Healy-Rae’s growing concern about the mental health of those who are forced to be isolated in their rural homes: “These people that are being isolated at present, all the wisdom and all the wit and all the culture that they had, the music and the singing, that’s all being lost to the younger generation because these older people might as well be living in Japan and Jerusalem because the younger generation don’t see them at all anymore.”
“These characters are being isolated now at home, and a lot of them falling into depression.” Healy-Rae asserts that being permitted to drive after having a reasonable amount of alcohol would help draw these isolated people out from their homes, in hopes of reviving a dying or reclusive generation.
Healy-Rae was cognizant that there will be opposition to his ideas: “I know there’ll be opposition. I know that it will be people in urban areas who have access to different outlets than the pub, but in rural parishes, that’s well we have – we don’t have anything else. All they want to do [here] is talk to neighbours, talk to friends, play cards, talk about the match and the price of cattle, about such a lady going out with such a fella, and it’s harmless.”
Indeed, the criticism has been laid on hard.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority in Ireland, was particularly critical of the Healy-Rae motion: "It is unthinkable that we would go back to a system that sought to increase our drink-drive limit.”
“We have made substantial progress in Ireland in reducing deaths and injuries on our roads, particularly in rural areas which are hardest hit by road fatalities and injuries."
Co Kerry Mayor Terry O’Brien also said to RTE that Healy-Rae’s motion is “incredibly dangerous. I don't know how anybody can be allowed to say: 'You've had two pints, so you're justified to drive.’”
“I don't know what expertise one would have to look at someone in a bar to give them a permit to drive a car after any alcohol.”
Kerry Councilor Gillian Wharton-Slattery refuted Healy-Rae’s link between being stuck at home and suicide: "Depression causes suicide. It's not caused by not being able to go to the pub," Wharton-Slattery told the Guardian.
Irish radio host Ray D’Arcy even hung up on the Kerry Councillor while speaking to him about the matter: “...You come up with harebrained ideas like this and waste everybody’s time. I have to say goodbye. This is my show. Good luck.”
But where there is criticism, there is also some support. Independent Galway Councillor Michael Fahy spoke out saying that he supports Healy-Rae’s new measure, and may bring the issue up at the next policing committee in Galway.
Said Fahy, “We don't want to see people drunk, we're only talking about up to three pints. This would have to be monitored, maybe by the publican or through some sort of stamped card system."
Similarly, Fine Gael’s Bobby O’Connell, a Castleisland, Co Kerry publican, strongly supported the motion. “Rural isolation is a big problem. People are afraid to go out,” he said.
Other Co Kerry politicians Fianna Fáil councillor and Milltown publican Michael O’Shea agreed, as did Michael Cahill, a Rossbeigh licensee and councillor.
With the motion passed in County Kerry, it will now proceed to the jurisdiction of Minister for Justice Alan Shatter. Healy-Rae said, “I, as a public representative, feel obliged to try and do my best to move this idea. All I’m asking from the Minister for Justice is that he consider this. I think it is a worthwhile idea.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.merefalow | Jan 28, 2013, 10:07 AM EST
its not ridickulous(hic) at all,there is nothing worse than having a crash when you are sober.
gobdawpaddy | Jan 26, 2013, 10:54 AM EST
Eamonn, I agree with your views and I am glad somebody living in Ireland has made the observation here. I recall some years ago on a visit to Dublin being introduced to Healy-Rae senior. It was explained to me a few minutes later that he was a member of congress (TD). My jaw dropped in an 'oh my gawd' moment, thinking to myself that there are enough people in his constituency who will vote for him?? Since then I have developed a better understanding of Irish politics and the nepotism that is omni-present. This nepotism has produced stellar representatives such as the Lenihans/O'Rourke, Mary Coughlan (her fathers seat), the O'Donoghue's, O'Cuiv and his cousin Sile Develara, Bee Flynn, the McEllistrim's (son, father and granfather), BIFFO (his father, his brother) etc. and now the traveling circus that is the Healy-Rae's. Irish voters, in particular those that favor fianna fail, don't appear to care much about the caliber of the candidate they cast their ballot for, it's more about the pedigree. The Irish electorate still refer to members of Fine Gael (I guess the equivalent of the Democrats in the states) as 'Blueshirts', a term coined way back in 1922. Regarding the 'drink driving permit' proposal, it is ludicrous but may get muppets like the Healy-Raes re-elected.
Towngate | Jan 25, 2013, 07:04 PM EST
It's a disgraceful proposal which only serves to provide fuel to anyone wishing to decry our beloved country. @TomS: your gent should seek a higher calling for his talents than slurping brainrot every night. ....as for the 'only tractors on lonely roads' argument: Those John Deere and Trax machines can reach motorway speeds. If healy-Rae wants to plunge Kerry back into the dark ages ~ the ass should insist that boozers can only report for duty at the pub in an donkey and cart!
EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 01:03 PM EST
The REALLY sad thing is that WE elect these gobshites into office, time after time after time, from one generation to the next, and their siblings, and their cousins. It doesn't matter how bad they are, or how sad they are, or how mad they are - as long as they're a relative "they'll do for us". Éamonn, Dublin.
EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 10:17 AM EST
My apologies for the repetition below. The Submit button did not appear to be responding.
EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 10:14 AM EST
I am a little surprised at the amount of ridicule piled on Danny the Councillor. I know where he's coming from and for whom he speaks. I visited Ireland recently and spent time with a friend of 50 years. He lives alone on a farm that has been in his family for seven generations, the last of his line. In all my life I have never seen him finish his second pint. I have never seen him even close to being drunk, but he loved that pint- and meeting up with friends and neighbors at his favorite pub three miles down the road, a road now virtually deserted since the new N5 went in, ironically, cutting through part of his farm. He used to cycle the distance, then was able to buy a car - that now sits idle because he is too scared of being stopped at a lonely check-point, the humiliation of being named and shamed in the newspapers too much to bear. A lover of politics and a great debater, he lives in near isolation, no more craic. He is one of many whose reason for living is diminished. The rich culture of pub life in rural Ireland is vanishing - the pubs are vanishing. I'm not sure what, if anything, is being saved but something important is being lost.
EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 10:13 AM EST
I am a little surprised at the amount of ridicule piled on Danny the Councillor. I know where he's coming from and for whom he speaks. I visited Ireland recently and spent time with a friend of 50 years. He lives alone on a farm that has been in his family for seven generations, the last of his line. In all my life I have never seen him finish his second pint. I have never seen him even close to being drunk, but he loved that pint- and meeting up with friends and neighbors at his favorite pub three miles down the road, a road now virtually deserted since the new N5 went in, ironically, cutting through part of his farm. He used to cycle the distance, then was able to buy a car - that now sits idle because he is too scared of being stopped at a lonely check-point, the humiliation of being named and shamed in the newspapers too much to bear. A lover of politics and a great debater, he lives in near isolation, no more craic. He is one of many whose reason for living is diminished. The rich culture of pub life in rural Ireland is vanishing - the pubs are vanishing. I'm not sure what, if anything, is being saved but something important is being lost.
EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 10:13 AM EST
I am a little surprised at the amount of ridicule piled on Danny the Councillor. I know where he's coming from and for whom he speaks. I visited Ireland recently and spent time with a friend of 50 years. He lives alone on a farm that has been in his family for seven generations, the last of his line. In all my life I have never seen him finish his second pint. I have never seen him even close to being drunk, but he loved that pint- and meeting up with friends and neighbors at his favorite pub three miles down the road, a road now virtually deserted since the new N5 went in, ironically, cutting through part of his farm. He used to cycle the distance, then was able to buy a car - that now sits idle because he is too scared of being stopped at a lonely check-point, the humiliation of being named and shamed in the newspapers too much to bear. A lover of politics and a great debater, he lives in near isolation, no more craic. He is one of many whose reason for living is diminished. The rich culture of pub life in rural Ireland is vanishing - the pubs are vanishing. I'm not sure what, if anything, is being saved but something important is being lost.
gobdawpaddy | Jan 25, 2013, 10:01 AM EST
Casual, from what I have seen and heard of Kilgarvan and the Healy-Rae's,I'd put the lot of them out on Valentia and knock the bridge. This tribe are making the entire Irish nation look like idiots, worlwide.
casualMBA | Jan 25, 2013, 09:23 AM EST
Strap a UPS transponder on every patron who measures out more than two pints on Valentia Island, or elsewhere, so that he may tread his rocky way home safely. And the Yank tourists need the exercise.
SarahinLA | Jan 25, 2013, 08:19 AM EST
Dinglelady, would you have given a Healy-Rae the scratch over the years?
SarahinLA | Jan 25, 2013, 08:11 AM EST
Embarrassed at my Irish accent this week as a result of the gombeenism that is being reported here as a result of these clowns in South Kerry, the Healy-Rae's, the County Councillors that voted for the motion, those who abstained and those who were MIA. Of course the people that vote for them are complicit. Ireland is perceived as being a nation of backward gobshites and it is not without merit.
Dinglelady | Jan 25, 2013, 07:46 AM EST
Well, now. How pompous and how puritanical many of you are. Danny Healy Rae, whose family are frequently made figures of fun, has a point. We are not talking about driving drunk. We are talking about driving with a maximum of three drinks, or possibly two. How bad is that? Yes, yes, there will be many who say any alcohol at all is bad, and this is a sustainable argument. But if you hold that position, then you should hold the same views on children in a car (have you ever driven with fighting children in the back?), having a row with your partner in the car, listening to a particularly aggravating radio programme, where you are banging the wheel and shouting disagreement, smoking in the car - think of lighting a cigarette, drinking coffee in the car, or any combinations of the above. All of them are as bad as two pints. They really are. We live in a time when measuring has become an obsession. You can measure alcohol content. The other things I have suggested do not lend themselves to easy measurement, but believe me, they are distractions. So I'm with Danny Boy. The Irish countryside is a lonely and isolated place especially in these long dark nights. The pubs are closing at a rate of more than one a week. The craic is dying. The drink driving risk is a young man driving too fast with a skinful. Old geezers like me, having a drink or two a couple of times a week and toddling slowly a mile or two to my house is no risk to anybody. Except perhaps the idiot pedestrians who feel no need to wear high vis, and who appear to dress in black for nocturnal excursions. Now there's a whole new argument.
Schlomo | Jan 25, 2013, 01:00 AM EST
Drunk driving law enforcement in Ireland depends on your status in the community. If your connected you're NOT convicted no matter what your blood/alcohol reading is.
cillowen | Jan 24, 2013, 10:43 PM EST
another reason to stay away from the gathering if drunks are driving in Kerry.
cillowen | Jan 24, 2013, 10:41 PM EST
I couldn't stop laughing - this healy and pat spillane voiced the same notion on rte. I'd suggest a volunteer corp of humanity who'd come for and take home these lonely unfortunates when plastered.
casualMBA | Jan 24, 2013, 08:48 PM EST
I was unaware Ireland had a zero tolerance policy on drinking (at all?) and driving. Is this true? In the States, the average patron does not risk the limits of the law with two (2) brews. Depending on the heft and frame of the person, three (3) brews MAY be well within the legal limit. If Ireland, in fact, has a zero tolerance policy, should not the Irish Tourism Board have some allocation to advise us Yanks of it? Though we have our dry counties and communities in the States, the Healy-Rae proposal would be considered by others.
gobdawpaddy | Jan 24, 2013, 07:24 PM EST
WK, how am I hypocrite, I don't drink and drive? Also, just in case readers might think Kerry and the Healy-Raes have a monopoly on stupidity,Galway Councillor Michael Fahy fine tuned the Healy-Rae/ Kerry C.C. proposal by stating 'we're only talking about up to three pints. This would have to be monitored, maybe by the publican or through some sort of stamped card system'. Yeah right, I could see that safeguard working in rural Ireland. This latest fiasco has made headlines around the globe. Irish people have to realize that in the Internet age, stupidity such as this won't be kept amongst yourselves, a dirty family secret and that on election day, voting for the village idiots may have ramifications for the way you are perceived. While I believe we redeemed ourselves admirably with Obama, Americans quite recently had their own village idiot problem, drawing ridicule for eight years.
JimmieM | Jan 24, 2013, 03:39 PM EST
I think we should all be good little subjects and just stay at home until government tells us what to do...they have to make so many rules you can hardly expect them to take care of every subject who would like a pint
galtyboi | Jan 24, 2013, 03:32 PM EST
What kind of a man is this ,has anyone told him about the amount of people killed on irish roads by drunk drivers who were not fit to get behind a wheel let alone drive a car because of excess alcahol.There should be zero tolerance when it comes to drink driving,simple as that.If you want to drink ,then don't drive,and if you want to drive then don't drink simple as that.It's not about the people in rural areas ,it's about lining his own pocket and sending a message to the people that it's ok to drink and drive ,well it isn't simple as that.For the safety of all people in Ireland ,Irelands drivers should be 100% free of alchahol otherwise don't get behind the wheel of any vehicle.
Heenan73 | Jan 24, 2013, 03:11 PM EST
Let's hope the rural eejits kill themselves, and not some innocent trying to get home on the narrow, winding, unlit roads.
WoundedKnee | Jan 24, 2013, 02:40 PM EST
There are few as po-faced and sanctimonious as the Irish media. They hunt in packs, and never show independent thought. They have shown themselves to be lazy and worthless on every issue for decades now. So this politician is an easy mark for the Dublin media, the lushes who can roll home on foot or in a cab. Out in the countryside, though, there is a vast social problem. The old are ever more isolated. There are no taxis, no buses. Good old boys whose week was highlighted by driving a couple of miles to the local village on a Saturday night are now interred alone in their homes. Easy for the pack of the Dublin media, and the No Thought crowd here to jump on this politician. Beats thoughtful analysis. Will one of you sanctimonious fools provide evidence of the number of road wrecks caused by people who have had two beers or less? The fact is there is no evidence about it, much easier to fall in with the screaming media crowd. Drunk drivers are guys who have been drinking all day, not guys who come out at 10, drive a route they've been driving for decades, and are home by midnite. Gobdaw Martin etc--useless hypocrites.
SeamusMartin | Jan 24, 2013, 12:12 PM EST
I hope this is a joke. My Irish friends in the States and the Continent heard about the proposal and are appalled by the world-wide message this sends about the Irish AND Ireland. Ireland... just say no!
ReturnedYank | Jan 24, 2013, 10:22 AM EST
There is no "legislation." Get your facts right. It was a proposal by a county council to ask the Minister for Justice to grant licenses.
gobdawpaddy | Jan 24, 2013, 08:46 AM EST
This story has been in the news in Ireland for three days in a row. This family belong in a traveling circus, but enough people in Ireland vote for them and get them elected to the dail and the Kerry County Council. Irish voters are going to have to start thinking before they cast their ballots.