Reality TV show winner and Independent TD Michael Healy Rae has said he has taken "no notice” of Matt Hancock’s I’m a Celebrity adventure - adding he doesn't have time for jungle antics.
It comes a decade after a scandal that saw thousands of votes cast for the Kerryman in RTÉ’s “Celebrities Gone Wild” from phones in from Leinster House.
Conservative politician Mr Hancock will enter the I'm A Celebrity jungle this Wednesday evening following weeks of speculation.
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While the British MP has been grabbing headlines across the globe for signing up to take on Bushtucker Trials, he is not the first politician to take part in a reality TV show.
In 2007, then-County Councillor Michael Healy Rae won the RTÉ show Celebrities Go Wild.
The show saw eight celebrities let loose in the wilds of Connemara as part of a bid to raise money for the “People in Need Telethon”
He took part in the show alongside late model Katy French, Daithi O Se, Michelle de Bruin, Victoria Mary Clarke, Tony Kenny, Mickey Joe Harte and Alan O’Neill.
When asked if he had any opinions on Mr Hancock entering the jungle, Mr Healy Rae told The Irish Mirror that he was not following the developments.
“I take no notice of those sorts of things,” he said.
He also told The Irish Mirror that he “wouldn’t have time” to enter the I’m A Celeb jungle.
Mr Healy-Rae won Celebrities Go Wild in 2007.
However, four years after his victory, it emerged that a phone in Leinster House made over 3,600 calls to the voting lines.
The Kerry TD denied that he was involved in the voting scandal, insisting that he did not know who had made the calls.
It never transpired if the calls were made from one phone or multiple phones.
“Nobody could say they were from one individual phone but they came from Leinster House,” he said at the time.
“I am not responsible for what other people do.”
The total cost of the phone calls cost the taxpayer €2,600.
I’m A Celebrity teased Mr Hancock’s entrance to the jungle at the end of Tuesday evening’s episode.
The former Health Secretary said that viewers would get a chance to see him in the jungle “warts and all”.
A teaser for Wednesday night’s episode showed him covered in bugs and sludge.
Mr Hancock’s decision provoked fury amongst his Government colleagues and the Conservative Party removed the whip from the MP following his decision to go Down Under.
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