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SINN FÉIN’s TD Brian Stanley has said that he has tried to personally apologize to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar after a tweet he sent about his election as the leader of Fine Gael in 2017.
Stanley spoke at the Dáil tonight following controversy over tweets he sent last month and in 2017, one about two attacks on the IRA and a second about Varadkar.
Stanley is the chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and his party has said he will continue in that role.
TD Laois-Offaly returned to the Dáil today after spending a week at home with the approval of his party leader Mary Lou McDonald TD.
Speaking on camera, Stanley apologized for the tweets and asked the offended and the TDs in the Dáil to accept his apology.
Stanley had previously apologized last week for a tweet about two IRA attacks on the British military.
In a message posted at the end of November, on the centenary of the Kilmichael ambush in 1920, Stanley wrote: “Kilmicheal (sic) (1920) and Narrow Water (1979) the 2 operations of the IRA that taught the electives of the () British army and establishment the cost of occupying Ireland. Too bad they all learned so slowly. “
In a subsequent statement, Stanley apologized “for the content of an inappropriate and insensitive tweet I sent.”
Following this, Stanley’s social media accounts were taken down after he insisted that he had nothing to apologize for regarding another tweet he sent about Varadkar when he was elected the head of Fine Gael in 2017.
“Yippee 4d tory. it’s Leo. You can do whatever you want in bed, but it doesn’t look like a pay raise the next morning, ”Stanley tweeted at the time of Varadkar’s election.
In reference to his tweet about Varadkar, Stanley said tonight:
The impending election as Taoiseach of someone who is gay was rightly highlighted at the time as a sign of the progress we have made as a country and as a state and following the marriage equality referendum two years earlier. That’s something that people were very proud of, and rightly Ceann Comhairle. The point I was trying to make is that it’s great, but let’s also focus on promoting workers’ rights and low-income rights and economic justice and issues like a living wage, which we don’t have in this country yet. .
“I accept that this is a point that I did not articulate very well and that this tweet is open to different interpretations. I tried to contact the Tánaiste today to personally express my apologies and I will do so again after this address.
“Homophobia is abhorrent to me and I absolutely regret any prejudice,” added Stanley.
And I realize that many people who have read my tweets do not know me personally, do not know my background, do not know my position on the issues. But my record is not a defense, nor does it remove any damage caused.
Speaking about his tweet about the IRA attacks, Stanley said, “As we move towards reconciliation in our country, we need to talk about the past in a way that does not deepen the divide.”
I accept that my tweet about the ambushes at Kilmichael and Narrow Water was insensitive and caused pain and anger. Words can do that and my words did and for that I am so sorry.
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PAC
Stanley made the comments under Standing Order 56, which means there was no further debate or questions after his statement.
Her party leader, McDonald, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland yesterday that it is the responsibility of ministers to be accountable to the Dáil and answer questions, but not to individual TDs who, according to her, are “accountable to the people.”
PAC Vice President Catherine Murphy TD replaced Stanley last week during his time away from Leinster House.
Speaking this morning before Stanley’s statement, Murphy said the problem is “at the end of the day, it’s a disciplinary matter for Sinn Féin and the standards that have been set.”
The SocDem co-director said the PAC cannot have a situation where the release of a major report last week is “overshadowed” by questions from journalists about the president’s conduct.
“We can’t have a repeat of that,” he said, adding that, “at the end of the day, it’s up to Sinn Féin where they set the bar,” he said.
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