TD brothers Danny and Michael Healy Rae have been accused of “putting on a political costume” and “a caricature” to pretend they are working class.
And it was then said in the Dáil yesterday that they were driving Mercedes when teenagers as they “counted their money” and “counted their properties.”
The famous independent representatives from Kerry infuriated Labour TD for Dublin Fingal, Duncan Smith, when they accused Labour of being anti-working class with their stricter Covid suppression proposals in the Dáil yesterday.
A blazing row then broke out when Mr Smith hit back, outlining his working class roots and slamming the two brothers as coming from a privileged class.
Mr Smith said: “What really got me in this debate today were the contributions from the Healy-Raes.
“I am absolutely disgusted because it hit me personally.
He then became more passionate as he added: “I am the son of a carpenter.
“I am not the son of Fianna Fáil privilege and millions and millions of euro.
“I remember, as a kid in the 1980s, having to take any work going, hanging doors in Finglas just to put a roof over our heads and food on the table.
“I remember that.
“I spent my teenage years working on sites, filling skips.
“Did they?
“Or were they driving their Mercedes into their big plant hire shops, walking past all of their machinery, worth hundreds of thousands, to count all their money, to count up all their properties?”
Unsurprisingly, both Healy Raes nearly blew up at these comments and roared back at Mr Smith: “It is not so, not so. It is not, not so.”
But Ceann Comhairle, Seán Ó Fearghail, was having none of it from the Kerry TDs as Mr Smith had the official speaking slot.
The Dáil chairman allowed the Labour TD to continue, and Mr Smith added fuel to the fire.
He said: “I have the floor.
“I am not going to be lectured on understanding workers.
“I do not have to put on a political costume and a caricature to pretend I am working class, like some.
“They do.
“This is a pro-worker motion.
“If they read it, if they understood it, if they took one second to remove themselves from their own regressive politics, they would see that this position is about a strong public health response to get people back to work and to stay in work, to get schools open and to keep them open……..They are pursuing a narrow, regressive, conservative agenda all of the time.
“It lets down the people of Kerry who they profess to represent; it lets down working people.”
