Thomas Pringle lashes out at Danny Healy Rae after Dáil interruption

TWO Independent TDs have clashed in the Dáil, with one resorting to a foul-mouthed tirade against the other. Thomas Pringle of Donegal had just begun to speak on the report of the consultative forum on security when Danny Healy-Rae of Kerry began raising a matter relating to his constituents’ . Mr Pringle had just begun saying: “It’s no secret –” when Mr Healy Rae began to shout. He was heard interrupting, referring to the “people of Kerry” who were not being listened to, either “today, tomorrow or any other day.” An irritated Mr Pringle turned in his direction and said: “Well it’s obvious you don’t f-----g listen to anything anybody says. “So if next time you open your f---ing ears instead of your mouth, you might understand what people are saying.” Mr Healy-Rae had earlier spoken about people being relocated to Killarney, Co Kerry, “and we don’t know where they are coming from.” Mr Pringle said he wished to be “totally disassociated” from those comments, which he thought “an absolute disgrace.” It appears it was this rebuke that prompted Mr Healy Rae to interrupt Mr Pringle’s speech to continue arguing his case. Mr Healy Rae reacted with bad grace when asked for his reaction by the Irish Independent last night. He said: “All I’ll say is that all I ever expected from a pig is a grunt. “I am entitled to my views.” Mr Pringle was not immediately available for comment in response. Mr Healy Rae later called to say that his comment on the pig’s grunt was “off the record,” when it had not been. He said he had been irritated and provoked, and that maybe it would not now be best to print the remark. He was told it was on the record, but his efforts to walk it back to some degree would also be recorded. The F-bomb has hardly been used in the Dáil since the infamous case of former Green Party TD Paul Gogarty. At this same time of year, shortly before Christmas in 2009, a needled Gogarty turned on former Labour Party TD and said “F--- you, Deputy Stagg.” The exchange – in a debate on a Social Welfare Bill began with Mr Stagg questioning Mr Gogarty’s sincerity. Mr Gogarty calmly and deliberately responded: “With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, f--- you Deputy Stagg. F--- you.“ He immediately withdrew the remarks and apologised, while acting Ceann Comhairle Michael Kennedy was nonplussed as to what to do. The incident lives on through social media and handicapped subsequent attempts by Mr Gogarty to return to frontline politics. Deputy Stagg has since retired.