VETERAN LABOUR MEP Proinsias De Rossa warned his party colleague Nessa Childers she could face expulsion if she continued to voice her opposition to the Government’s nomination of a senior civil servant to the European Court of Auditors.
Ms Childers has written to Labour’s secretary general Ita McAuliffe and party leader Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore to express her concerns about contacts she received from a senior party figure after she publicly opposed the appointment of Kevin Cardiff to the court of auditors.
Although she spoke earlier this week about the warnings she received, the Ireland East MEP did not name the person who contacted her and was not available for comment yesterday.
However, The Irish Timesunderstands it was her colleague in the European Parliament, Mr De Rossa, who contacted Ms Childers after she told reporters last week she was "not happy" with the appointment.
Mr De Rossa could not be reached for comment yesterday and his spokesman referred queries to the Labour press office. Labour’s director of communications Dermot O’Gara said the issue was being treated as an internal party matter and declined to comment further.
Mr De Rossa left two messages on Ms Childers’s phone. In the first, he told the MEP to contact him immediately, and warned her not to say anything more about the Government’s nomination of Mr Cardiff.
The two politicians then had a heated conversation during which Ms Childers hung up. Mr De Rossa then rang her again and left a second message on her phone in which he expressed his annoyance at the fact that she had put the phone down on him.
In this message, Mr De Rossa, referring to himself as the head of the Labour delegation of MEPs in Strasbourg, told Ms Childers that she could face expulsion if she persisted with her public stance on Mr Cardiff’s nomination.
Separately, Mr O’Gara said he contacted Ms Childers last week after her comments and advised her not to pursue the issue in the media. He said Ms Childers listened to him, but decided not to take his advice.
Mr Gilmore said on Tuesday that he had “no idea” about anyone warning Ms Childers not to speak about her opposition to Mr Cardiff’s nomination.
Mr O’Gara said he wasn’t sure whether Ms Childers’s letter to the party’s general secretary had been received but he was sure Mr Gilmore would be copied in any correspondence.
