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Home Page > News > Danny Healy-Rae’s Co Kerry ‘drunk driving’ legislation slammed as 'ridiculous'

Danny Healy-Rae’s Co Kerry ‘drunk driving’ legislation slammed as 'ridiculous'

New Healy-Rae legislation looks to permit driving after a few pints in rural areas

KERRY O'SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Thursday, January 24, 2013, 8:01 AM

Updated Thursday, January 24, 2013, 8:01 AM

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Danny Healy-Rae at his family pub in Kilgarvan, Co Kerry

Photo by Dan Linehan

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 10:17 AM EST

My apologies for the repetition below. The Submit button did not appear to be responding.

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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.

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EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 10:13 AM EST

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EamonnDublin | Jan 25, 2013, 10:13 AM EST

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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.

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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.

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SarahinLA | Jan 25, 2013, 08:19 AM EST

Dinglelady, would you have given a Healy-Rae the scratch over the years?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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cillowen | Jan 24, 2013, 10:43 PM EST

another reason to stay away from the gathering if drunks are driving in Kerry.

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