Senior members of the Government have sought to ramp up pressure on Sinn Féin over child protection issues and the controversy over the resignation of TD Brian Stanley from the party.
The Coalition is using some of its time in the Dáil today to hear statements on child protection. It comes after the Government and some in Opposition demanded that Sinn Féin make a statement to the House on the controversy surrounding Michael McMonagle, a former party press officer.
McMonagle (42), from Limewood Street in Derry, last month pleaded guilty to two charges of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, and 12 counts of attempted sexual communication with a child on dates in 2020 and 2021.
He was suspended from his job with Sinn Féin after he was arrested in August 2021, but was appointed to the role of communications manager with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) charity in Belfast in September 2022.
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Sinn Féin has come under fire over how it dealt with the issue after it emerged that employment references were provided for McMonagle by Seán Mag Uidhir, a long-standing Sinn Féin figure who headed its media operation in Northern Ireland, and his colleague Caolán McGinley. The two officials left the party after it was revealed they had provided the references.
Party leader Mary Lou McDonald last week signalled that Sinn Féin would challenge the Government on its own child protection policies during today’s debate, saying that “very senior members” of Coalition parties have written character references for “convicted rapists and child abusers”.
Asked on Tuesday about what he wants to hear from Sinn Féin during the debate, Taoiseach Simon Harris said some of the issues “are actually so serious and so grave that what they don’t require is political pot shots”.
“So what we shouldn’t see today is whataboutery,” the Fine Gael leader said.
“We shouldn’t see political theatrics. What we should see today is the leader of Sinn Féin take the opportunity to answer basic questions around timelines and process and around extraordinarily serious issues to do with the protection of children. We shouldn’t need to have a kind of drip-feed of information.”
Mr Harris said he believes Ms McDonald to be a “decent person” and “today is an opportunity to put all the information out on the table for once and for all”.
Speaking in advance of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin argued that “Sinn Féin always puts the party first” and that it needs to look at “internal processes and this sort of culture of secrecy around almost everything it does”.
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said he wants further information from Sinn Féin and Mr Stanley in relation to the circumstances of the Laois-Offaly TD’s resignation at the weekend. Mr Stanley announced he was leaving Sinn Féin last Saturday, citing a “kangaroo court” set up by the party after the complaint about him.
Sinn Féin has disputed his characterisation of the process initiated after the complaint.
While the nature of the complaint and counter complaints at the heart of the dispute have not been revealed, Sinn Féin said on Monday that it told Mr Stanley in September to go to the Garda with concerns he raised during a party inquiry into a complaint against him.
Sinn Féin made the statement in response to Mr Stanley’s suggestion it should have reported these concerns after he raised them with the party last month during the inquiry.
Mr Stanley’s resignation was followed by a referral of the matter to the Garda by Sinn Féin – an action the party has said it has taken out of an “abundance of caution”.
Mr O’Gorman said the information in relation to the controversy is “vague” and “there are still more questions than answers out there at the moment”.
“I think it would be useful for Sinn Féin just to clarify why they went to the gardaí now and didn’t go to the gardaí in August in terms of the I suppose, their understanding of the seriousness of the allegations,” he said. “I think it would also be useful for deputy Stanley to provide clarification as well.”
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