Mary Lou McDonald said she has “deeply regretted” a comment she made when a former Sinn Féin senator resigned, and she has written to the young person who received improper communications from him, reports Breaking News.
According to the head of Sinn Féin, former senator Niall Ó Donnghaile has been punished for his actions, losing both his party membership and his political career.
“Those are big sanctions for someone like him,” she remarked, reports Breaking News.
According to the Dublin TD, the young person was “hurt” by the remark that was made after Mr. Ó Donnghaile resigned, and it should not have been made.
“I wrote to the young person at the heart of this matter and expressed to them my very deep regret and my sorrow that I had caused them pain or distress by the commentary that I made on Niall’s exit,” Ms McDonald said, reports Breaking News.
“That’s the last thing I would do. Apart from being a politician, I’m a mother and I know something about raising young adults, so I deeply regret that, I’ve expressed that to the young person. And I mean it. I meant it and I mean it. The matters around Niall were referred to the PSNI, to social services. That was necessary. That was the most important thing, actually, because when something like this comes to the attention of any organisation, your first responsibility is to ensure that the relevant statutory authority is across this, because that’s actually how you action safeguarding in the first instance. Then Niall faced consequences. His political career is over. His membership of Sinn Féin is over. And for someone like him, those are big sanctions. I was conscious at the time that he was in mental health crisis,” reports Breaking News.
Earlier this month, former Sinn Féin senator Mr. Ó Donnghaile disclosed that a complaint accusing him of sending improper text messages to a youngster was the reason he resigned from Seanad and left the party last December.
Last September, Sinn Féin submitted the case to social services and the PSNI; however, no criminal investigation was conducted, reports Breaking News.
Ms. McDonald denied enquiries about whether Sinn Féin had been allowing Mr. Ó Donnghaile to attend the party again in the future if the accusations regarding his actions had not come to light.
She said such things during the party’s new health policy unveiling.
She added: “When somebody breaches trust in the way that he did and acted inappropriately, although I have to emphasise, not criminally, inappropriately, there is no door back from that. I think if you look to my actions as party leader, not just in this case, but in others where action has been necessary and where sanctions were necessary, I have not flinched. Those actions have been taken, and those sanctions have been delivered. And our organisation is no different to any other. You have your procedures. You cannot legislate for human behaviour, unfortunately. But the question is, when it comes to light that you have robust procedures to deal with them. But, no, there was never any question of that at all,” reports Breaking News.
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