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Weird Tuesday, January 22nd 2013 at 8:31 am

Irish County Council Votes to Issue Drunk Driving Permits to Rural Citizens

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Ireland, it would seem, has officially decided to just start living up to all the ugliest stereotypes the rest of the world has about it. Exhibit A:  The local council for Kerry County in south-west Ireland has approved a measure that would allow police to issue permits to people living in rural areas that would allow them to drive drunk legally. The new rule was proposed by council member Danny Healy-Rae, who we hope to God was drunk when he came up with this idea, if only because the other option is him being stupid all the time.

Healy-Rae’s unprecedented argument for more drunk driving stems from the fact that some of his older constituents ”are being isolated now at home, and a lot of them falling into depression,” apparently because they can’t drive home a little sauced from the pub, which is known to be one of the leading causes of depression nowhere, ever. Setting aside for a moment the fact that depression doesn’t actually work that way, is there any reason those folks couldn’t spend the last hours of their time out among friends drinking a club soda or two? Oh, they would rather drive home a danger to themselves and others? Well, now I see the argument. Healy-Rae also pointed out that folks he’s arguing for the permit for live in lightly trafficked rural areas, where you’d have to be a drunk idiot to hit someone with your car, which you would think would be an argument against more drunk idiots on the road, but is apparently not.

The BBC reports that Healy-Rae, who had the truly surprising grace and good sense to stop his speech before suggesting that some folks might drive better when they’ve had a couple, brought the motion up for a vote toward the end of a council meeting from which more than a dozen voting members had already departed, and it passed with just five votes for to three against, with the seven remaining members abstaining. And it’s just a coincidence, surely, that most of the ‘Yea’ votes came from council members who, like Healy-Rae, also just happen to own bars.

This fact, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with their passage of a bill that would allow them to serve more booze to intoxicated people who would shortly be operating motor vehicles. Even suggesting so would be an offense to a noble group of people who just want to see more inebriated people behind the wheels of Ireland’s automobiles, as God intended.

The vote doesn’t mean that the permits will be issued, as the matter now goes to the justice department of Ireland for approval.

(via BBC, image via flickr)

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  • terry

    I love it! So Irish farmers driving around the countryside drunk (which they probably have been doing since the invention of the automobile) is a crappy, stupid, terrible idea. Yet you write a whole article praising a man who defrauds his company and opens a can of national security issues because he is so lazy he has to outsource his own job to China… Are you terminally stupid or do you just have NO moral compass whatsoever?

  • SL

    Everybody in Ireland thinks that Healy-Rae is an ass, this vote is being treated with more ridicule here in Ireland than anywhere else!

  • http://www.facebook.com/ian.chant Ian Chant

    That’s deeply heartening! FWIW, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we have idiot politicians here in the States, too. You do not stand alone!

  • http://www.facebook.com/ian.chant Ian Chant

    We like to think it’s the second thing.

  • http://geekosystem.com/ Glen Tickle

    Ian didn’t write the article praising the guy for outsourcing his own job. That was me. Don’t give Ian credit for my complete lack of a moral compass.

  • TheReptile

    If they would just go back to riding horses, then they would *always* have a designated driver (assuming the horse did not join in the pub crawl).

  • Jack Bond

    That’s no laughing matter. These people are endangering lives… and livers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tshew1 Tim Shew

    Its a greta idea. Hope it catches on in the US. Screw all the do-gooders and mad moms!!!

  • G

    TBH I’ve seen it happen in Kerry and cork, people live so far away from the local pub (you may ask ‘why don’t they do something else’?) Well there isn’t anything else to do and that’s we’re everybody goes, the simple fact is that it would be safer if they drove home after drinking than walking home. It sounds stupid I know but that’s the ‘sensible’ solution. No one likes Healy Rae aswel but I’m sure there would still be some restriction to just how drunk you can be!

  • CelticBrewer

    What a judgemental prick, Ian is, to think that he knows the issues (environmental, cultural, or legal) of rural Ireland. How experienced are you with driving those roads?

  • http://www.facebook.com/eamonn.gormley Eamonn Gormley

    Check your facts please. The council’s vote has not “approved a measure that would allow police to issue permits to
    people living in rural areas that would allow them to drive drunk
    legally.”

    It simply asks the Minister for Justice to change the rules. I’d imagine the minister will get a good laugh at this.

  • Idlethoughts

    This would be less distressing if I didn’t have to use the same road system as you.

  • Mick

    These roads are so isolated. They’ve been doing it anyway for years and in the last few years they have cracked down on it. Now these bachelors are lonely in their homes, many miles away with no chance of a social outlet unless they want to pay copious amounts of money on taxis’ IF there’s one available. Not saying letting them drive is the solution but you can be a little more empathetic to these people.

  • Armedrabbit

    Healy-Rae i should have known.