Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, support the amendment on the following grounds. I was to speak about something that hurt me greatly. The Minister will know that some of the finest people who ever served in local government were local councillors in terms of their dedication and commitment of time. He will also know that until 1999, there was no such thing as remuneration for being a county councillor; they were paid expenses. The late Danny Kissane - God be good to him - was a fine councillor for Fine Gael on Kerry County Council and I admired him a great deal. He reliably informed me that for the 12 months of 1981 the remuneration he had received for attending all his meetings and all of the time he had given to local government was £220. The point I am making is that we had respectable people like the late Danny Kissane and others from all parties - Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and others - as well as Independents. They were extremely dedicated to what I call their profession. They might have been small farmers, had a small shop or other job, but they were serving their communities. What hurt me badly - the Minister knows this as well as I do - was that as a result of the actions of a very small number of people, we had tribunals looking into payments made to politicians and so on. I do not want to brand places, but some of the cases happened to be in Dublin city. They gave what I would call highly respectable people a bad name. They also gave politics a bad name. However, people like the man I named were extremely dedicated and gave a lifetime to politics for no remuneration whatsoever.

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