Clare TD Violet Ann Wynne received "good support" from Sinn Féin in the Oireachtas, according to her former party colleague Pauline Tully.
Ms Tully said she was “shocked” to hear last month that Ms Wynne had resigned from the party.
“I was shocked that she left, I worked quite closely with Violet, we were on the disability matters committee together so we engaged a lot together, I would have messaged her a few weeks ago, before she had her baby about when she was coming back, and I didn’t get a reply,” she told reporters at a Sinn Féin event on waiting lists for assessments for children with additional needs.
In a statement announcing her resignation from Sinn Féin, Ms Wynne alleged she was the victim of a campaign of psychological warfare, that she was being "gaslit" and that her unplanned pregnancy was used as a stick to beat her with - although she said she could not fault Sinn Féin TDs in Leinster House.
Ms Tully, a Cavan-Monaghan TD, said she finds it “hard to believe” that Ms Wynne was not supported by the party in the Oireachtas and “wouldn’t accept” that she was isolated.
‘Very much included’
“Obviously I can’t speak for what was happening on the ground in the constituency, but definitely here I can’t see that. We very much included her and supported her in every way we could,” she said.
“I believe that she was supported in the Oireachtas team, I think her claims were more about in the constituency...I’m not in County Clare so I don’t know what’s happening on the ground.”
David Cullinane, Sinn Féin's health spokesman, said he believed that Ms Wynne was fully supported in the Oireachtas by colleagues and by management and "efforts were made as well by party structures to resolve what were issues at a local level".
“I believe that our female TDs and all our TDs are fully supported by party management, any time there is any issue, and we have very robust processes in place to make sure people are supported,” he said.
‘Democratic party’
Mr Cullinane also said that Sinn Féin is a “democratic party” and rejected suggestions that TDs are not allowed to hire their own staff.
“We do choose our own staff, I chose my staff member. What happens, like in any organisation, we have interview panels…which gives a level of independence, because we don’t hire family members,” he said.
On the issue of assessments of need, Ms Tully said there are “very long waiting lists for assessments of need and interventions and supports for children with additional needs”.
“We’re just calling on the Government to come up with a strategy and to sit down and plan properly for the proper staffing of all of these services,” she said.
“At the back of this are families at their wits end. They’re crying out for supports. They’ve feeling they’ve no option but to either pay privately for these assessments and treatments which they can’t afford, or to go down the court route.”
