Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that Brian Stanley will not announce his resignation as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee when he makes a statement to the Dáil on Tuesday.
“He will make a personal statement to the Dáil as he was requested by the Ceann Comhairle. Brian will set out his stall, make his position clear. Brian is an honourable person,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
The Laois-Offaly TD will address the Dáil following criticism of his social media activity. On November 28th, Mr Stanley tweeted in reference to the Kilmichael Ambush in 1920 and the Narrow Water Massacre in Warrenpoint, Co Down in 1979, claiming they were “the 2 IRA operations that taught the elite of d British army and the establishment the cost of occupying Ireland. Pity for everyone they were such slow learners”.
Less than 24 hours after apologising for that tweet, Mr Stanley was forced to defend himself against alleged homophobia in a tweet posted on the day Leo Varadkar became Fine Gael leader in 2017.
Mr Stanley took last week off political activity at Ms McDonald’s request.
She told Morning Ireland Mr Stanley would not be taking questions in the Dáil, as individual members of the House, no matter to which party they belong, were answerable and accountable to the people, not to the Dáil.
“Individual members of the House are not accountable to the Dáil, they are accountable to the people, but any one of us can avail of the opportunity to make a personal statement and that is what Brian has done within the rules. That does not involve the taking of questions, it never has.”
When asked if Sinn Féin, as a party, had a problem with the behaviour of its members on social media, Ms McDonald said everybody needed to be mindful of what they posted online.
“I think certainly the Sinn Féin deputies have learned a very valuable lesson and it’s this, that if others, whoever they may be, choose to go through your posts over years and years and years back and if they’re going to find things that are ill-judged or frankly, silly, well then they will use that to put you behind the eight ball and to score a political point against you.
“That’s the lesson here more generally on the use of social media platforms, which by the way are powerful platforms, very often platforms for the good, for the telling of stories, the relaying of information, for rallying opinion and campaigns for the good, very often, but they can also be misused or sloppily used, – there’s a lesson in that for all of us.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the same programme he believed Mr Stanley could take questions at the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) about his controversial tweets.
“He could very well take questions, there’s no issue there in terms of why he wouldn’t,” Mr Martin said.
“I do accept that ordinarily it is government ministers who take questions, but I do think in relation to some of his tweets, particularly in relation to what he said in terms of Narrow Water Bridge and the British establishment, the murder of Lord Mountbatten and those young boys, which I think was one of the great crimes against humanity that we experienced over the last 40 years.
“I think he needs to apologise for that and also for the tweet in relation to the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar which is something I think he needs to account for.”
When asked if Ms McDonald should remove Mr Stanley from his position as chair of the Pac, Mr Martin said he would prefer to wait and see what Mr Stanley had to say.
“I would like to see what he has to say tomorrow and I’d like to give him that opportunity at the Public Accounts and give his comprehensive statement and apology.”
