Sinn Féin has said it told Brian Stanley to go to the gardaí with concerns he raised during an inquiry into a complaint against him.
Amid a deepening controversy, the party last night hit back against suggestions from its former TD that it should have reported concerns he raised during an internal disciplinary process in September.
Mr Stanley resigned as a Sinn Féin member on Saturday evening, citing a “kangaroo court” set up by the party after a complaint was made about him in late July. His resignation was followed by a referral of the matter to the garda by Sinn Féin, which has in turn been criticised for not doing so sooner in the process.
During the investigation of that complaint, Mr Stanley said in a statement on Monday that he raised “serious matters” with the panel investigating the allegation on September 11th, and that “the party should have referred it to the Gardaí.”
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In a statement on Monday evening, Sinn Féin said that during the inquiry “a number of issues of concern were raised including one by Brian Stanley”.
“He was advised to go to the Gardaí to report this matter but chose not to. He was accompanied by his barrister and solicitor and was fully advised of his rights and entitlements,” the statement said.
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said the controversy raised “really serious questions that cut to the leadership approach of a party that is still aspiring to lead a Government”.
Speaking on Monday at the opening of a new unit at the Mater hospital in Dublin, he said they raised questions about Ms McDonald’s leadership approach in the party who he was still aspiring to be Taoiseach.
“Two very important questions have emerged from the different revelations across this morning. Firstly, the question should be posed to the leader of Sinn Féin, how is it you can be in an environment in which you become aware of a complaint against a very senior member of your party, somebody who is chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, but you don’t know what that complaint itself is?” said Mr Donohoe.
“That leads us to ask the question, did she not ask? And if not, why not? And if she did ask but didn’t get an answer, why did that happen?”
In a statement issued through his solicitor, Mr Stanley said he welcomed the fact that “Sinn Féin has belatedly referred the ‘complaint’ and matters concerning it to the gardaí”. He said this approach had been advocated by him “for some time, including to a senior Sinn Féin official”.
He said the matter should have been referred to gardaí “once both myself and my legal representative brought certain serious matters to the attention of the ‘panel’ on September 11th”. He said Ms McDonald had “stated correctly that the complaint made against me is not of a criminal nature”.
However, he said that “statements by the party leadership now asserting that my rights were protected throughout this process are totally incorrect”.
He said he refuted the complaint, which he said had been lodged on July 26th, the day that the nomination process opened for members to put themselves forward to contest the general election.
“In my case this had the effect of preventing me of having a hope of contesting it as a Sinn Féin candidate for Laois,” he said, adding that he had “obtained written proof” from Sinn Féin of the date when the complaint was made.
He claimed Ms McDonald had “given wrong information by stating that it was only received on the 2nd of August”.
He said he made Ms McDonald aware of the complaint in person on July 29th “and that certain information regarding it had been circulated by party members”.
“The information had been deliberately kept from me that there was a complaint or the nature of it,” he said, adding that he had to get his solicitor to write to the party on July 31st to ascertain “what was the nature of the complaint”.
He said “an ‘omerto’ [sic] was in place.”
Mr Stanley added: “In the intervening period, ie from July 26th, the process of character assassination was well underway by a certain party clique and has continued unabated since then.
“These facts and others mean that there has been a significant abuse of process and when it was brought to the attention of the Sinn Féin ‘panel’ it was simply brushed aside,” he said. “I stand over what I stated two days ago regarding what the party refer to as an ‘inquiry’.”
Speaking on RTÉ‘s Morning Ireland on Monday, Ms McDonald said a complaint was made against Mr Stanley on August 2nd by a long-standing member of the party. She said a disciplinary panel was set up, headed by a barrister who is a party member and two other senior party members, one from the South and the other from the North of the country.
She said a counter allegation was made following the initial complaint, and that a preliminary report was circulated to both parties at the beginning of October. She said the internal party process had been suspended as Mr Stanley “walked away”, resigning from the party at the weekend – which was “of his doing, not mine”.
The Dublin Central TD said it was at this point she was personally briefed about the nature of the initial complaint and was party to the decision of referring the matter to An Garda Síochána on Sunday afternoon.
“The referral to An Garda Síochána was made in an abundance of caution because I was not happy nor would I be happy with the party left with a serious complaint and a serious counter allegation,” she said.
Ms McDonald added that to her knowledge the complainant had not gone to gardaí but that was “absolutely their prerogative” and both parties were free to do so if they wished.
The Sinn Féin leader also said she was not in a position to say whether or not the complaint or the counter allegation “meet the standard for criminal investigation”.
Ms McDonald also insisted her party was more than fit for government and has procedures in place that work and hold people to account.
On the question of her leadership, Ms McDonald said: “I lead from the front and I will not be deterred.
She said she was “very much” in charge of Sinn Féin and the person “with whom the buck does stop”.
As chairman of the powerful Public Accounts Committee, Mr Stanley was a one of the party’s best-known TDs, and was especially prominent during the committee’s hearings into the RTÉ scandals last year. Sinn Féin sources said they would quickly seek to remove him as chairman of the committee.
His statement of resignation was scathing about the inquiry process.
“In recent months a certain clique within the party have gone to extreme lengths to damage my reputation and character. No efforts have been spared by them in this regard,” he said.
“On foot of a ‘complaint’ I was recently brought before an internal party ‘inquiry’.
“Given what has transpired and the work of my legal team, what is very clear is this process lacked objectivity, was seriously flawed and was devoid of impartiality.
“This ‘inquiry’ has been shown to have lacked any shred of credibility, not least due to a significant abuse of process. In many ways it resembled a type of kangaroo court. Legal examination of this matter will continue.”
Mr Stanley said that “after 40 years of service to Sinn Féin, I will now continue working as an Independent republican TD of behalf of constituents, who have always treated me in a fair and respectful manner”.
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