The Dáil has voted to remove Danny Healy-Rae from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food, and to replace him with fellow Kerry TD Michael Cahill.

The vote to remove Healy-Rae from the committee followed his decision last week to withdraw his support for government over its handling of the fuel protests.

This afternoon (Tuesday, April 21), the Dáil voted to adopt a report from the Dáil's Standing Committee on Selection, which is the committee responsible for nominating members to, and discharging them from, the various committees of the Oireachtas.

That report from the standing committee, which was laid before the Dáil late last week, said: "The Committee of Selection reports that it has discharged Deputy Danny Healy Rae from the Committee on Agriculture and Food and has nominated Deputy Michael Cahill in his stead."

That report was adopted by the Dáil this afternoon, with 86 votes in its favour and 56 against, with two abstentions.

Healy-Rae's replacement on the committee, Michael Cahill, is a Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry who was elected at the 2024 general election.

Before that, Cahill was a long-time member of Kerry County Council.

Committee

It is understood the government's position was that Danny Healy-Rae was given a seat on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food in recognition of his support for government.

However, Deputy Healy-Rae told Agriland last week that he feels he is "entitled to hold onto my seat in the committee".

"That's not the way I was understood that I was appointed. I was not appointed as a member of the coalition or of Fianna Fáil," he said.

"I'm very hurt about that because I feel that I was doing good work there," he said.

"They want to hurt me now and take me off it, but they'll be also hurting the farmers in Kerry and the people involved in agriculture, marts and everything else," Deputy Healy-Rae added.