{"id":479514,"date":"2026-06-02T17:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/479514\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T17:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:27:11","slug":"michael-healy-rae-blames-brother-for-kerry-losing-minister-of-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/479514\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Healy-Rae blames brother for Kerry losing minister of state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Healy-Rae has blamed his brother for events which led to his resignation as a minister of state in the wake of the fuel protests.<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae said Kerry, which both men represent as TDs, was \u201cserved badly\u201d by comments from his brother Danny Healy-Rae, which led to the end of their deal with the coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il, along with other independents.<\/p>\n

Both Healy-Raes voted against the Government in a confidence motion in April, with Michael resigning as minister of state with responsibility for forestry at the Department of Agriculture. Danny was later removed as a member of the Agriculture Committee.<\/p>\n

Michael said on Tuesday that an interview Danny gave to Radio Kerry at the time \u201ccost Kerry\u201d the ministry in agriculture, adding: \u201cThat is an absolute fact and it is very disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DannyDanny Healy-Rae at Leinster House (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cTeam Healy-Rae has been damaged by this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny had expressed \u201coutrage\u201d over the Government\u2019s response to the fuel protests, including the scale of cuts in costs of green diesel, and called for the leadership of Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il to be replaced.<\/p>\n

In an interview on the same station on Tuesday, Michael said it had been the \u201ctoughest political chapter in my book\u201d but that he had not been \u201cknocked out\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he \u201cloved\u201d his minister of state position and had been \u201crelishing the role\u201d.<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae said he was not \u201cblamed for\u201d what happened and, when asked why he resigned, said: \u201cI didn\u2019t give it up, I gave nothing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had even made a social media video on Sunday saying he would vote confidence in Government but said: \u201cUnfortunately, it started here. A fire was lit here on the Monday, which I wasn\u2019t aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Healy-Rae and Danny Healy-Rae both represent Kerry (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI had been trying everything in the world, and I tried vehemently to try and put things right, but a fire was started, I couldn\u2019t stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his brother\u2019s interview had \u201ccost Kerry a ministry in agriculture\u201d.<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae said it was \u201cnot the place\u201d for an independent to tell a parliamentary party what to do, particularly one that had \u201cshook hands\u201d on an agreed programme for government.<\/p>\n

He said the coalition had been honouring the deal and he was now \u201cworried about Kerry\u201d potentially being adversely affected by future cuts.<\/p>\n

The former minister of state said he had achieved progress on the Killarney bypass and rules on short-term letting as well as other enhanced services in Kerry.<\/p>\n

Asked if he was sacked by Government, he said he was \u201csacked on Radio Kerry \u2013 because that started it\u201d. He said all that was needed was \u201cpolitical backbone\u201d and \u201cto stay the course\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"IndependentIndependent TD Michael Healy-Rae gives a thumbs-up to the crowds gathered outside Leinster House, Dublin, after resigning in the Dail (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae said his brother\u2019s comments \u201cdid not make sense\u201d, did not achieve anything and \u201cstarted something I couldn\u2019t stop\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he was \u201cupset\u201d and \u201cpulled overboard\u201d by the comments.<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae said there had been no \u201cblazing row\u201d, \u201cpersonal row\u201d, or \u201cnastiness\u201d between him and his brother.<\/p>\n

However, he added: \u201cI\u2019m personally very upset \u2013 not personally on my behalf \u2013 but on the behalf of the people of Kerry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae said he would have to be \u201ccareful and prudent\u201d about making a \u201cdeal with somebody\u201d in the future.<\/p>\n

He said there would be \u201csoul-searching\u201d ahead of the next elections, adding: \u201cI do hope this won\u2019t damage us with the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Healy-Rae has blamed his brother for events which led to his resignation as a minister of state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-479514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}