Danny Healy-Rae: Says Rural Pub Closures Will Funnel Crowds
Danny Healy-Rae spoke about rural pub closures, arguing that keeping small rural pubs closed forces customers into larger towns and increases crowding. He urged the minister to reconsider the policy, questioned the scientific evidence linking rural pubs to virus spread, and defended rural licensees.
Main complaints
He outlined numerous rural locations affected - Guinea-Byllis, Scottedlin, Foyeris, Cora, Headford, Baradhoof and Ratmoor - and said closures mean people will travel into Killarney where more pubs will open and crowds will be larger than before.
Crowding and local capacity
He warned that although Killarney can cater for crowds, many of its pubs will remain closed, so people from surrounding areas will flock to the fewer open venues, increasing concentration rather than dispersal of customers.
Impact on customers and mental health
He said the restrictions penalise rural customers who cannot travel the distances to larger venues, raising concerns for mental health and access to hospitality, especially as Christmas approaches.
Support for licensees and financial concerns
He defended rural licensees as honest, hardworking people and complained about financial hardship and outstanding costs. He referenced an appeal over pandemic payments - asking that those slightly over the threshold receive an extra amount to reach 350 to cover insurance and other bills.
Appeal to the minister and request for evidence
He appealed directly to the minister to take the issue back to cabinet for reconsideration and demanded to see scientific evidence that rural pubs cause or spread the virus, arguing the current approach is unfair to rural publicans and customers.
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.
Ceann Comhairle, I just want to say to the Minister in relation to the keeping rural pubs closed and just to give you an idea Minister, there's places like Guinea-Byllis, Scottedlin, Foyeris, Cora, Headford, Baradhoof, Ratmoor and there's a certain amount of pubs not going to be opening in Killarney but there's no pubs can open in the places that I aforementioned there and what's going to happen is on a Saturday night there will be about half the pubs in Killarney open so what's going to happen is as sure as day follows night you'll have a bigger crowd in Killarney than ever before and Killarney is well able to cater for crowds but half the pubs there won't be opened because and then you'll have all a combination of people coming from Killarney and from parts of South Caribbean that won't be able to open and they're all going to arrive into Killarney and then the amount of them that don't there'll be other people coming from Killarney and then the pubs there will be other people coming from the pubs there and in a regulated way and I feel that the government is making a massive mistake in not allowing all the pubs to open and to spread out and spread the people out and that's and it's very wrong on the customers and we must talk about mental health as well because there's many customers in rural places won't be able to go the distance to places like Killarney or Trilie or Trilie or Trilie or where the big bigger pubs that are able to cater to food and and and and and and serve food they won't be able to go those places to those distances and no consideration I feel has been given to this if we started in Mallow and go all the ways to Killarney there will be no pub open in that vast countryside so they're either going to take countryside. So they're either going to face Formello or Killarney, and it's absolutely ridiculous. I can't understand, and I'm appealing to the minister, because I do acknowledge his ability and his understanding, but I'm asking you to get a hold of the rest of the members of the cabinet and trash this out. It's not making sense. And I asked the teacher today, where is the scientific evidence that suggests that rural pubs were caused the virus or spread the virus or would spread the virus? Where is that scientific evidence? If we got that or if he have it somewhere, give it out to us, but he haven't dished it out to us yet. And it is very wrong to penalise and not trust people, because I trust the people that have licensed premises. I trust the licensees. I know, and the vast majority, 99% of them, are honest, hardworking people. And it's a massive, it's a try to God that the leaders of the country are not trusting these kind of people. And why is the question? And like my brother Michael Hillary said there, when the pandemic payment was given out, all we asked for was that the people that were slightly over the age would get the extra bit to bring them up to the 350, because they have outstanding costs. They have insurance costs. They have other services that they have to pay. And it's just not that the pinch, when they'll pay those things, they won't have enough to feed themselves. And that has been happening all the year. It's very wrong. It's very wrong, minister, that you're not trusting our licensees in the rural place. And this is not hurting Dublin at all, because two-thirds of the pubs in Dublin are going to be open, because they're serving food. And one third will remain closed. But it's the other way around, down our way. It's not even a third of them will be able to open in all of Kerry. It's wrong. It's coming up to Christmas. It's hurting customers. It's hurting publicans. It's hurting each of them as much as the other. And I'm asking to look at it again, please, minister. It's not fair, you're not being fair to honest, hard-working people. I'm pleased to re-look at it and to take more consideration. Thank you very much.
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.
