Former independent Clare TD Violet-Anne Wynne told a court on Friday she was not able to pay her weekly rent of €300 this week, and that herself and her family are depending on the goodwill of others.
At Ennis District Court, Ms Wynne, a mother of six, disclosed that she is living on “goodwill from a lot of people” and “sometimes obviously going to other people who lend money and add on interest”.
Ms Wynne was in court after being asked to substantiate her claim, with a statement of means, that she currently has no income to pay off a residual €6,500 debt to a former constituency office worker, Fiona Smyth, from a €11,500 Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) award made against her.
On Friday, Judge Alec Gabbett ordered Ms Wynne to pay off the €6,500 debt in instalments of €50 per week.
Ms Wynne said that her partner, John Mountaine, is self-employed but has been unable to work since mid-May due to suffering epilepsy seizures four times a day.
Ms Wynne said she has received loans from family “and they are of the opinion that I am not able to pay back the money that they have provided to me and family for the likes of shopping, clothes and stuff like that for my children”.
Ms Wynne disclosed that household bills total €895 each week but there is only an income of €500, leaving a shortfall every week of €395.
Judge Gabbett told Ms Wynne: “I need you to be more forthcoming. There is a serious deficit of information here. There may be a cogent explanation for some of this but in the absence of paper it is problematic.”
Ms Wynne said: “It is not a case that I have withheld information.”
Judge Gabbett said that if the debt is not paid, it is a criminal offence, “and that is quite serious for someone like you, a former member of the Dáil”.
Ms Wynne said that disability benefit for her partner is something she will look into.
Judge Gabbett also told Ms Wynne that he needs a letter from the Clerk of the Dáil about how much she is entitled to in a TD termination payment.
He said: “There has to be a paper trail.”
Ms Wynne said: “I got two payments in one lump in a termination payment and I paid €5,000 [to Ms Smyth] from that.”
Asked how much she received in her TD termination payment, Ms Wynne said: “I don’t have the details to hand.”
Last August, the WRC ordered Ms Wynne to pay the €11,500 after finding that she had unfairly dismissed Ms Smyth.
Ms Wynne - who had received a TD’s annual salary of €113,679 – lost her seat in Clare in the November general election, where she had stood as an independent candidate, receiving only 310 first preference votes. In the 2020 general election she had topped the poll as a Sinn Féin candidate.
Judge Gabbett adjourned the case to September 19th.
