Michael Healy-Rae claims brother Danny can help Trump in negotiations with Ukraine

Michael Bolton

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae says his brother Danny can help Donald Trump in negotiations for stopping the war in Ukraine.

The Kerry TD is set to be a junior minister in the Government, with the Programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and a number of Independent TDs.

Mr Healy-Rae, who will take up a position in government for the first time, also declined to say if he had secured any deals for his constituency but that the people of Kerry will see the benefits of having the Healy-Rae brothers in government.

Speaking on Wednesday morning, he said that after many years in opposition, he and his brother Danny want to work in government to better their home county of Kerry.

Asked which department he will be in, Mr Healy-Rae said: “At the end of the day, the giving-out of any positions, it’s obviously a matter for the incoming taoiseach, we will respect that role.

“It is fair to say that there is an arrangement in place where there will be a role at a department at a minister of state level for the Healy-Raes.

“It’s fair to say that that role will be going in my direction but as for what that’s going to be, that’s obviously for the direction of the incoming taoiseach.”

He also said he wants to see a “return of common sense” in government.

“What we would like most of all is that this government gets back to basics and gets back to the basic things that the people need, what the farmers need, what the tourism sector needs and all the different things that we’ve been highlighting,” he added.

“Whatever the issue is, we’re not slow to come out and we’ll be still doing that.

“We will try and make sure that common sense prevails, that’s the thing that is needed more so than anything else.”

He also praised his brother Danny for his negotiation skills over recent weeks.

“If President Trump is looking to get any able person to assist him in stopping the war in the Ukraine, he couldn’t carry a better person than Danny Healy-Rae with him,” he added.

“His negotiation skills over the last number of weeks are second to none.

“The work we have done, we are ensuring that government are taking on board the issues and the concerns that are County Kerry.

“, if they are in County Kerry, they are reflected throughout the rest of the country.

“Those issues are taken on board at the heart of government. We are going to use our position, the two of us, in ing the government and in ing Kerry in what I would like to call a better and stronger way than what we might have been able to do in the past.”