Independents accused of hypocrisy after breaking ranks
INDEPENDENT TDs Jackie Healy-Rae and Michael Lowry broke ranks for the first time yesterday to vote against the Government on the stag hunting ban.
But the independent TDs have voted for a range of painful cuts and tax hikes over the past two years, including the introduction of the income levy and social welfare reductions.
The stag hunting ban has no direct impact on their constituencies of Kerry South and Tipperary North, as it only affects the Ward Union Hunt in Meath and north Dublin.
Indeed, Mr Healy-Rae agreed yesterday that he was not in favour of "letting a pack of dogs loose after a deer and scaring it half".
Yet he was voting against the legislation banning the hunting of stags with dogs.
"I'm totally opposed to the bill and I'm voting against it," he said.
Since he became a TD in 1997, after leaving Fianna Fail because he failed to get a nomination for the general election, Mr Healy-Rae has consistently voted with the Government.
He had an official arrangement from 1997 to 2002, when he was one of four independents who supported a minority Fianna Fail-PD coalition, which he resumed in 2007.
From 2002 to 2007, he had a less formal arrangement, where he was still granted meetings with Government officials and also voted with Fianna Fail, even though the coalition did not need his vote.
Mr Lowry, a former Fine Gael minister, agreed an official deal with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2007 to support the Government.
Record
Last year, Mr Healy-Rae voted 155 times and Mr Lowry 116 times out of a total of 206 votes.
The TDs voted with the Government each time and none of their absences from votes was accounted for by objections to the particular issue. Yet the independent TDs are now opposing government policy over stag hunting.
Their votes were cancelled out by fellow independent TDs, Finian McGrath and Maureen O'Sullivan, voting for the bill.
Fine Gael chairman Padraic McCormack said yesterday he was unimpressed by the independent TDs' stance as they were only voting against it as they knew others were voting for it, so the legislation would not be defeated.
"That is complete hypocrisy," he said.
- Fionnan Sheahan
Irish Independent
