Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has signalled she is willing to go before the Dáil and address the arrest of her party’s TD Thomas Gould over an alleged €150,000 fraud at a former employer.
Mr Gould, who emphatically denied any wrongdoing over the weekend, will not be removed from his position as a junior spokesman on housing and urban renewal, Sinn Féin said, and will have no change to his roles or responsibilities or participation in the Dáil.
Following a report in The Irish Times on Saturday, Mr Gould confirmed he had been arrested by appointment the previous day and was released without charge. Mr Gould said he believed he would be vindicated following the investigation.
A second Sinn Féin representative, Cork City councillor Kenneth Collins, was arrested in early January by appointment arising from the same investigation. He was also released without charge and has denied any wrongdoing.
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A file is expected to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by investigating gardaí.
Both men were elected representatives for Sinn Féin at the time of the alleged fraud, with the investigation understood to be focusing on the 2014-2019 period. Mr Collins was first elected for the party in 2014, while Mr Gould sat on Cork City Council between 2009 and 2020, when he was elected to the Dáil.
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In a statement on Sunday, Sinn Féin said Ms McDonald was “happy to address any relevant issue on the floor of the Dáil”.
“Any comments could not, of course, cut across ongoing inquiries by An Garda Síochána,” a spokesman for the party said.
On Sunday, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Michael Healy-Rae said the Sinn Féin leader should address the Dáil on the matter.
“I’m sure she will have a lot to say on the record of the Dáil because she has been saying a lot about things like this over the last couple of weeks,” he said, a reference to Sinn Féin calls for statements on a controversy involving Martin Conway, who was elected as a Fine Gael Senator.
Asked why the party had reappointed Mr Gould as a spokesman after he told the party of a complaint made by his former employer to the Garda in early February, Sinn Féin said he “continued in his role from the previous term”.
“He was not appointed to the front bench,” the party said.
Sinn Féin said that no other member of the party or activist has been questioned as part of the investigation. The party said Mr Gould told Sinn Féin that he was informed of the complaint at the end of January and that it was an allegation of wrongdoing made by a former employer.
“He told us of the date of his interview two weeks ago and informed the party on Thursday evening that he had been told by his solicitor that he would be arrested for questioning.”
“There will be no changes to deputy Gould or Cllr Collins’s roles or responsibilities, or participation in the Dáil and City Council,” a spokesman for the party said.
Mr Gould is undergoing treatment for bowel cancer.
Frank Buttimer, a solicitor acting for Mr Collins, said that his client had left employment with the company approximately six years ago and had been in good standing with the firm for a “long number of years”.
He confirmed that Mr Collins had been arrested in early January by arrangement, that he denies all wrongdoing and had fully co-operated with the Garda investigation having been given the details of a complaint against him for the first time during the interview.
“He denied any wrongdoing and was released without charge,” Mr Buttimer said.
