Danny Healy-Rae: Says Pub Closures Are 'Anti-Village' for Rural Ireland
Danny Healy-Rae addressed deputies about the impact of pub closures on rural publicans and communities, calling the measures "anti-village" and accusing the government of belittling rural people. He demanded scientific evidence linking rural pubs to virus transmission and warned closures would push some drinking into unregulated settings.
Main complaint
He accused the government and a Teachta of doing to rural Ireland what no previous leader had done, saying rural publicans and customers will "have no Christmas" and that their concerns had been belittled and mistrusted.
Demand for evidence
He repeatedly challenged the Teachta to produce the scientific proof behind decisions to close rural pubs, asking where the evidence was and urging it be brought forward if it exists.
Consequences for rural communities
He warned that the closures were "anti-village" and would hurt rural business and social life, predicting increased unregulated drinking as people sought alternatives outside licensed premises.
Personal stance and acknowledgement of the pandemic
He stressed he was not anti-rural or anti-pub and said there was "nothing I would like better right now than a pint in some rural pub," but accepted the restrictions were a consequence of a global virus and that pub life would be postponed for some time.
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Teachta, you have hot many thousands of rural publicans and rural customers and people. Teachta, what you have done no other Fianna Fáil leader or Teachta in the past would have done to rural Ireland. What you have done is anti-village, anti-rural publicans and customers will have no Christmas. They are saying that you don't care, Teachta, that you have a job for another year or so and you are happy with that. You have belittled rural publicans and rural people, you don't trust them. But there certainly will be plenty unregulated drinking as you know and I know and he will need good strong jeeps and vehicles to find them. Talking about Roald Dahl and Mr Fox and that kind of nonsense on the radio or on the television is no compensation to the people of rural Ireland. I am asking you, Teachta, where is your evidence, where is your scientific proof that pubs in rural Ireland were the cause and would be the cause of transmitting the virus? Thank you Deputy, thank you. Where is that evidence, Teachta? And if you have it, bring it forward because you haven't put it out there yet. Again, I have to say that I am not anti-rural, I am not anti-village, I am not anti-pub. There is nothing I would like better right now than a pint in some rural pub in an idyllic village in the west of Ireland. I can assure the deputies of that. But that is not something I will be able to participate in for quite some time yet. That is not the fault of government, it is not the fault of anybody, it is the fault of a virus, a global pandemic. The ultimate objective of government is to protect human lives and to protect those most vulnerable in our society. We have to make judgement calls, we have to make calls based on evidence, we have published the evidence and the evidence is there if you look at it from August into September and right into October. In terms of from the time unfortunately when pubs are open and it is no fault on the publicans. I have said repeatedly that I accept their good will in terms of their efforts to implement the guidelines. But the reality is with what happened in many locations and one only has to look at the index going up in terms of a number of cases in certain areas after events combined with the opening of the wet pubs in my own city. This is not just in rural Ireland, it is also in cities where in Galway and Cork for example there was a very significant increase at a given period as well as in rural areas as well. And the evidence unfortunately is there for that. Now the bottom line is we could have taken a decision to open the pubs but we would have done it clearly in the knowledge that we would have been contributing to an exponential rise in numbers fairly quickly. And that is the issue basically. That is unfortunately the issue. It is a genuine desire to try and save lives. And I think people should not be trying to play politics to the degree that people are playing politics with it. And if you do not have a difference in the case, you can say. I should have taken a decision to have the decisions that can be opened up on the Esteban. I would really like to check out on the other side of this table. We can see you temporarily and see you at the next level as well. I have a sì. I just saw that there was a great decision on those teams that were not bad at the end. I would really like to see you there, so I was just too close to the present room with the actual meeting. I am back to the table, but I do not want to watch you and I have to see you. I am very aggressive as well. I think you are here and I think it's going to have a little bit of a difference. I do have a long time, but I'm just as if you're in a way of a lot of the window.
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