“Every dog and divil in Kerry” knows that a man who pleaded guilty to election fraud works for a business owned by members of the Healy-Rae family, the Seanad has been told.
Fine Gael senator Mike Kennelly today accused a man — who last week avoided a conviction for voting in last year’s local elections using a polling card that was not in his name — of being an employee of Healy-Rae Plant Hire.
The company is run by the family of Kerry Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae, including his son Johnny, who is a councillor for the Kenmare area.
In the Seanad on Thursday, Mr Kennelly told junior housing minister Christopher O’Sullivan that the issue was a “worrying and serious matter.”
Under parliamentary privilege, the Kerry senator said: “We had voter impersonation at a Kenmare polling station at the local and European elections in June 2024, caught on CCTV.
“A Cahersiveen man pleaded guilty but avoided a conviction for election fraud after he used a polling card not in his name that went missing from a vehicle. It is even more extraordinary to learn, as every dog and divil in Kerry knows, that the defendant works for the Healy-Rae Plant Hire company. He was cited in court as a farmer and a contractor, but his employer, the Healy-Rae firm, was unusually not identified, even though he has worked for it for years.
“I called for a thorough investigation into the facts of the incident last week, and we still need clarity as to how this was quietly hushed up. It has made a mockery of our democracy. There have been no answers as to how this man got the polling card before he drove 40 miles from his home to vote in another town.
“He did not acquire it himself, the court was told, so who exactly gave it to him? The electors of Kerry, and indeed the rest of the country, deserve to know.”
Mr Kennelly went on to say that there were more irregularities in the Kerry electoral area. He said that he had been elected a councillor in 2014 by two votes and that individual cases do matter.
“Another case in Kerry centres on potential criminal wrongdoing in the form of irregular supplementary registration. This case centres on allegations that, ahead of the May 2019 local elections, a garda officer in the Killarney electoral area stamped hundreds of supplementary voter registration forms without the applicants being physically present, which is a legal requirement.
“An Garda Síochána launched a formal investigation led by a superintendent from outside Kerry and a file was prepared. As of April 2024, GSOC forwarded a file to the DPP, with a decision still pending. This is over six years ago. When will we see this case brought to a conclusion?
“I have stated that these cases have made a mockery of our democracy. Illegal voter fraud strikes at the very heart of our democracy.”
In response, Mr O’Sullivan said he could not comment on individual cases but that trust in the system was paramount.
“We all, as the Senator said, have put ourselves up for election. It is a stressful time, including for our families and our friends, and one does so in the hope that we can trust the electoral system. If there is fear that fraud may be carried our or that votes are cast inappropriately, it undermines that.
“It undermines not only us as candidates but also democracy in general and means that people’s voices, essentially, are not heard in the way they should be.”
Danny Healy-Rae has been contacted for a response to Mr Kennelly’s statements.