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The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Brian Stanley, has said that he does not need to apologize for a tweet he sent about Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in 2017.
Stanley told the committee that his record stands on its own and that he has always been vocal and campaigned for the rights of the LGBT community.
The tweet sent by Stanley after Varadkar’s election as the head of Fine Gael read “Yippee 4d tory. I’m Leo. You can do whatever you want in bed, but you don’t look like a raise the next morning.”
Stanley said the word “yippee” was a celebration of gay rights, since Ireland had a gay Taoiseach.
Committee Vice Chair Catherine Murphy said she takes note of the work that Mr. Stanley has done to promote gay rights.
However, he believes that “it is never acceptable to link someone’s sexual orientation to public policy.”
He said he does not think the reference to the then taoiseach is acceptable.
Stanley told the committee that he grew up in Ireland when it was illegal to be gay and that he stood up for gay rights before it was “in fashion.”
He said he does not have to apologize, adding that members of the house such as Varadkar, Fintan Warfield and Jerry Buttimer would know his background.
Sinn Féin @BrianStanleyTD tells PAC that he doesn’t have to apologize for a tweet he sent about @LeoVaradkar in 2017. He said his record on gay rights “stands on its own” @rtenews pic.twitter.com/Mp4uMxSQPU
– Tommy Meskill (@TommyMeskill) December 3, 2020
Mr. Stanley said the point he was making was “it’s great that we’ve achieved gay rights and that’s why.”
However, he said that he also wanted to convey that he wanted “to advance the rights of workers and their conditions.”
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