Danny Healy-Rae Urges Reopening of Marts After No COVID Cases
Danny Healy-Rae spoke in the Dáil about the closure of agricultural marts and urged the reopening of local marts in Kerry, arguing no COVID-19 cases occurred at the marts and that farmers will suffer financial loss. The Taoiseach responded that level five restrictions are a lockdown and that public health advice recommends reducing congregation, which includes marts.
Marts and farmers' losses
Danny Healy-Rae said farmers are angry that sellers will be unable to enter marts to sell cattle, estimating a loss of €100 to €200 per farmer. He argued that marts complied with rules, were well controlled and ran "absolutely impeccable" operations, and described the closures as unfair given no cases were linked to marts.
Public health rationale and level five
The Taoiseach replied that level five is a lockdown situation and acknowledged it is difficult and challenging. He said public health advice seeks to reduce social contacts because the virus spreads most where people gather, and that high community transmission means reducing congregation venues such as marts.
Disagreement over evidence and controls
Healy-Rae insisted marts were exceptions that did not cause cases and stressed the controls and management were effective. The Taoiseach accepted the principle that congregation spreads the virus but emphasised current incident rates and the need to follow public health guidance.
Local plea and political exchange
Healy-Rae made a direct plea to reopen the marts in Kerry. The Taoiseach acknowledged the difficulty of the decision and restated the public health position without committing to an immediate reversal.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
It is very clear, Taoiseach, that no cases happened in maths and farmers are very hot now that to just be a buyer's sale the sellers will get no look in because the farmers themselves won't be able to go in to sell their cattle so it's very unfair even though not one single case happened in any of in any math they obeyed the rules and like other businesses feel it down as well that didn't break any rules and and these are an exception no case happened in the math and it's true it's going to mean a difference of a hundred to two hundred euros less for farmers if you're going to stop them of going into the maths to sell their cattle it's very wrong they were very very well doing very well controlled managers accosted people and made them tore the loin and everything was ran perfect absolutely impeccable so I'm asking you We've had the litany of the saints when I was a child going to school we've had the litany of the villages and the townslands and I think today we've had the litany of the marks in county Kerry so you're fighting a tough battle Taoiseach you're going to reopen the marks in Kerry Thank you for that lead-in first of all I would just say again look level five is difficult and it's very challenging and it's it is a lockdown situation and everybody says it didn't happen here I don't know where the virus starts actually you know if I've set up the list of all the places where it didn't happen one would be hard pressed to find actually where the virus begins and not because you know if the virus spreads from people to people public health advice is that the less social contacts we have the better all around particularly now because there's such a high community transmission of the virus and the incident rate is so high that they want to reduce any congregation where they possibly can and unfortunately that includes marks and that's the position from the public health advice and I think I accept that that the principle of congregation is is is correct that that's where the virus is the virus spreads most when people gather when people meet when people engage we've got to reduce people's social contacts and that's the position at the moment and that's the position at the moment I'm trying I've no doubt I I'm I'm not casting any aspersions on the people around them in fairness I accept their point Okay my apologies eight deputy You I Shit There's a Suzuki Thank you And There's a Suzuki For this and Oh Can Yes Wait She Dah
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
