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A SINN Féin TD launched an angry off-camera verbal attack on independent TD Mattie McGrath as politicians waited to vote in the Dáil on Tuesday.
inn Féin whip Pádraig MacLochlainn, a TD from Donegal, lashed out at the Tipperary politician while the TDs waited to vote, repeatedly accusing him of being “completely dishonest.”
“You are the most dishonest TD I’ve seen in my nine years here,” MacLochlainn said visibly annoyed as he pointed at McGrath.
The exchange was not picked up by the Dáil television monitor or by the camera microphones as it had been called for a vote, but it was witnessed by journalists in the Press Gallery.
The incident followed a heated discussion about whether the Dáil can prevent a return to the Convention Center for future sessions.
The use of the venue on Dublin’s North Wall Quay has become increasingly controversial among TDs. The estimated cost of € 25,000 a day has led some to question the sustainability of the deal, which is underway to comply with social distancing rules.
At a restricted Dáil session at Leinster House on Tuesday, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy called for a “workable solution” to end the Convention Center sessions. He pointed out that the Government approved guidelines to allow more people to sit in the Dáil bar than in the room and opposed this Thursday’s session at the Convention Center.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the problem was that voting with the 160 TDs cannot take place safely at Leinster House according to public health guidelines.
However, McGrath was outraged by Sinn Féin’s intervention, claiming that the party had not supported his proposal to end the Convention Center sessions at the most recent meeting of the Dáil business committee.
A series of heated exchanges followed before a vote was called on whether to continue Thursday’s Dáil sitting at the dock site or reconsider a proposal to return to Leinster House full time.
It was at this point that Mr. MacLochlainn approached Mr. McGrath and repeatedly yelled, “What proposal have you put forth to address public health issues? What proposal have you made to address public health problems? “
Mr. MacLochlainn told Mr. McGrath that his “strategy is to be dishonest every week” and concluded: “You are the most dishonest TD I have seen in my nine years here,” he said.
“Completely dishonest.”
McGrath later told Independent.ie: “I objected week after week and then last week it was put to a vote and I proposed that we go back. [to Leinster House] and I don’t have a second. It’s a great hypocrisy of Sinn Féin
“I value my integrity and my honesty with my life, they are not going to lie to me or the gross hypocrisy with which they continue. Why did you come to yell at me such an absolute tirade?
“The records of the meeting would show that I have consistently opposed this. The medical advice is that with a distance of one meter we could go back. It is total harassment and intimidation, that’s what it is.”
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