Sinn Féin has appointed Caroline Dwane-Stanley, the wife of former Public Accounts Committee chairman Brian Stanley, to a prestigious European Union committee of party councillors.
Mr Stanley resigned from Sinn Féin earlier this month after claiming that an internal disciplinary inquiry to which he was the subject was a “kangaroo court”.
The Laois TD, who has been chair of the powerful committee since 2020, was the subject of a complaint made by a woman, the details of which were unknown.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the woman was “traumatised” by the event. However, Mr Stanley made a counter complaint against the woman, which was referred to the An Garda Síochána by Sinn Féin after he resigned from the party.
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Ms Dwayne-Stanley, Sinn Féin’s only councillor in Co Laois, has been appointed to the European Committee of the Regions, an advisory body composed of local elected representatives, that shares their views on how EU legislation directly effects regions and cities.
It meets six times per year in Brussels to debate proposed legislation and agree on resolutions for further action by the EU.
There are nine Irish representatives on the committee, all of them councillors. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have three members each, and there is one each from Sinn Féin, Independents, and Labour.
The nomination of Ms Dwayne-Stanley was made before the controversy emerged involving her husband, who has been a TD since 2011.
She has not resigned from Sinn Féin and is still a member of the party.
In her only comments on the controversy, she told Laois Live: “It is a difficult time but we will get through it. We are getting huge support from many people in the community. The amount of people that have contacted us is phenomenal. At the end of the day, they are the people who put me in my job and I am very grateful to them for their support,” she said.
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