It feels perverse that I should have to write this piece. It is perverse. I should not have to explain to anyone, least of all those who joyfully sing from his hymn sheet, that Robert Kennedy Jr. wants to exterminate autistic people.
I should not have to explain it to anyone because it should be obvious from any moderately critical examination of how he has spent the last two and a half decades of his life.
RFK Jr., son of the late Bobby Kennedy, initially built his career as an environmental lawyer, bringing cases against polluters, but around the turn of the century, he was taken in by the fraudulent claims of disgraced former doctor Andrew Wakefield, who essentially kickstarted the modern anti-vaccine movement by falsely linking the MMR vaccine to autism as part of a money-making scheme.
Since then, RFK Jr. has dedicated his public life to campaigning against vaccines, not linking them exclusively to autism, but primarily to autism, and the reason he does it is very simple.
RFK Jr. believes it is better to die of a preventable illness than to be autistic.
The plant hire firms of TDs Mattie McGrath and Danny Healy-Rae have each received millions in contracts from Uisce Éireann since the state-owned utility (then called Irish Water) began managing Ireland’s national water infrastructure in 2015.
E&M McGrath Plant Hire, based in Newcastle, Co. Tipperary, and Healy-Rae Plant Hire, based in Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry, received contracts worth €2.2 million and €25.7 million respectively from 2015 to 2024, according to information released under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.
While Deputy McGrath was initially supportive of Irish Water in 2014, urging compliance with water charges in an interview with Tipp FM, he has since become a critic, particularly in regard to persistent water supply issues in South Tipperary. He accused Uisce Éireann of “vandalising” Clonmel’s water supply in February of this year.
Nevertheless, his firm, which is run by his son Edmund, was engaged by Uisce Éireann under a plant hire framework established by the Local Authorities Group and used by all 31 Irish local authorities, as well as Uisce Éireann. The firm has received more than €200,000 per year from Uisce Éireann in each year of its operation except 2016 and 2020.
2015
€225,248
2016
€149,106
2017
€214,935
2018
€202,706
2019
€202,430
2020
€172,988
2021
€269,803
2022
€261,339
2023
€214,455
2024
€292,879
Healy-Rae Plant Hire was engaged under Uisce Éireann’s national Repair and Maintenance Framework, and has received more than €2 million per year since 2018, peaking at over €5 million in 2023.
2015
€306,185
2016
€494,665
2017
€1,435,263
2018
€2,651,645
2019
€2,719,472
2020
€2,091,596
2021
€4,697,300
2022
€3,520,405
2023
€5,150,671
2024
€2,674,234
Deputy Healy-Rae was a director of the firm throughout his first seven years as a TD, but gradually transfered ownership to his sons from November 2023 to March 2024.
However, while Deputy McGrath’s firm was engaged under such contracts, Deputy Healy-Rae’s firm contracted directly with Uisce Éireann.
In its decision on the FOI request, Uisce Éireann stated that “the process Irish Water uses in acquiring goods and services at competitive prices meets all best practice standards as regards to public sector tendering”.
Left in the Lurch 