Ex-TD Violet-Anne Wynne says she cannot pay rent and is depending on goodwill
Violet-Anne Wynne
told a court on Friday she was not able to pay her weekly rent of €300 this week, and that herself and her family are depending on the goodwill of others.
At Ennis District Court, Ms Wynne, a mother of six, disclosed that she is living on 'goodwill from a lot of people' and 'sometimes obviously going to other people who lend money and add on interest'.
Ms Wynne was in court after being asked to substantiate her claim, with a statement of means, that she currently has no income to pay off a residual €6,500 debt to a former constituency office worker, Fiona Smyth,
from a €11,500 Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) award made against her
.
On Friday, Judge Alec Gabbett ordered Ms Wynne to pay off the €6,500 debt in instalments of €50 per week.
Ms Wynne said that her partner, John Mountaine, is self-employed but has been unable to work since mid-May due to suffering epilepsy seizures four times a day.
Ms Wynne said she has received loans from family 'and they are of the opinion that I am not able to pay back the money that they have provided to me and family for the likes of shopping, clothes and stuff like that for my children'.
Ms Wynne disclosed that household bills total €895 each week but there is only an income of €500, leaving a shortfall every week of €395.
Judge Gabbett told Ms Wynne: 'I need you to be more forthcoming. There is a serious deficit of information here. There may be a cogent explanation for some of this but in the absence of paper it is problematic.'
Ms Wynne said: 'It is not a case that I have withheld information.'
Judge Gabbett said that if the debt is not paid, it is a criminal offence, 'and that is quite serious for someone like you, a former member of the Dáil'.
Ms Wynne said that disability benefit for her partner is something she will look into.
Judge Gabbett also told Ms Wynne that he needs a letter from the Clerk of the Dáil about how much she is entitled to in a TD termination payment.
He said: 'There has to be a paper trail.'
Ms Wynne said: 'I got two payments in one lump in a termination payment and I paid €5,000 [to Ms Smyth] from that.'
Asked how much she received in her TD termination payment, Ms Wynne said: 'I don't have the details to hand.'
Last August, the WRC ordered Ms Wynne to pay the €11,500 after finding that she had unfairly dismissed Ms Smyth.
Ms Wynne - who had received a TD's annual salary of €113,679 – lost her seat in Clare in the November general election, where she had stood as an independent candidate, receiving only 310 first preference votes. In the 2020 general election she had topped the poll as a
Sinn Féin
candidate.
Judge Gabbett adjourned the case to September 19th.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Coalition warned against diluting contentious Occupied Territories Bill
The Government will be warned not to allow the potential for legal challenges to be used as an excuse to water down the legislation known as the Occupied Territories Bill . The Oireachtas foreign affairs committee will this week publish its report on a proposal to ban trade with illegally occupied territories in Palestine. The report, finalised on Friday, is understood to recommend widening the legislation to include a ban on services as well as goods. There have been stark warnings from business lobby groups that such a measure could damage the Republic's trading relationship with the US and cause economic harm to Irish businesses and households. The Occupied Territories Bill is now undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny Listen | 41:13 The committee will tell the Government to model the ban on trade with illegal settlements in Palestine on 2014 trade restrictions with Russia regarding illegally occupied territories in Ukraine. The committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart , which did not have statistics on the volume of trade in services between the State and illegally occupied territories, will call on Minister for Trade Simon Harris to collate and publish such information. It will also tell Mr Harris to establish what kind of backlash the State would face in terms of trade and diplomacy should it ban trade with the occupied Palestinian territories. [ Republic joins 25 states urging end to Gaza war Opens in new window ] Ministers will also be advised to consider what defences could be available to a business charged with an offence under the proposed law. . It is understood that the committee believes further work is required from the Government before the law could be enacted. And it will ask that Attorney General Rossa Fanning's advice on the complex Bill is 'expedited' so it can move forward as a matter of urgency. During meetings before the Dáil rose for the summer recess, Mr Lahart was critical of 'misinformation' about the Bill and the State's motivation for passing it – much of which was repeated by senior US political figures. Chairwoman of US House Republicans Lisa McClaine described the Bill as a type of 'extreme anti-Semitic hate'. [ How life in the West Bank is deteriorating for Palestinians Opens in new window ] It is understood that the committee's report will call on the Government to explain the motivation behind the Bill to European Union and international colleagues, while also lobbying Brussels for further collective EU action against Israel. The committee will propose a Government-funded public communications campaign for domestic and international audiences to explain the facts of the Bill and to challenge misinformation spread about it.
Irish Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
GAA pay tribute to Fermanagh shooting victims at All-Ireland football final
The GAA have paid tribute to the victims of a fatal shooting in Maguiresbridge with a minute's applause at Croke Park ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC final. Vanessa Whyte, who was 45, and her children, Sara (13) and James (14) died after they were shot at their home in the Co Fermanagh village on Wednesday. A male who also suffered gunshot wounds remains in a serious condition in hospital. Vanessa Whyte and her children were active members of two local GAA teams. In separate statements on Wednesday night, both St Mary's Maguiresbridge Gaelic Football Club and Lisbellaw St Patrick's Hurling Club offered "heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those impacted by the tragic incident. Vanessa Whyte and her children, Sarah and James "We are working with the GAA at county, provincial and national level, to implement the Association's critical incident protocols. We will work closely with all appropriate services to ensure that those who require support at this difficult time can access it. "The deceased were all active and beloved members of our club. We will not be making any further comment at this difficult time." A murder investigation has been launched, and police are probing a triple murder and attempted suicide line of inquiry. Ahead of today's All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park between Donegal and Kerry, a minute's applause was warmly received with a picture of the mother and children displayed on the big screen at Croke Park. Ulster champions Donegal, managed by Jim McGuinness, are hoping to win their third All-Ireland title today as they take on Jack O'Connor's Kerry, who are bidding to win the Sam Maguire Cup for the 39th time.
Irish Examiner
5 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
John Whelan: Tariff-free services exports are key to growth for now
Across the business front, particularly the digital providers, an audible sigh of relief can be noticed as it became clear that the EU's €93bn list of countermeasure tariffs against the US does not include services trade. The EU's countermeasures will automatically click into force on August 7, said the European Commission, should the US fail to drop the Trump-threatened 30% tariff on all EU exports by then. The big worry for Ireland's services companies, which are mainly US multinationals, accounting for €115bn in exports sales in the first three months of the year as reported by the Central Statistics Office earlier in the month, was that the EU countermeasure tariffs on the US would include services. This would have had major implications for the many thousands employed in the sector, likely forcing relocations to other non-EU countries, as well as significantly hitting the Government's corporation tax take. Now the full weight of the EU-US tariff war is set to fall on the wide range of manufactured goods, inclusive of food and drinks products, which could impact on sales output to our largest customer the US, and in the process hitting State funding. The implication of this change in trading relationship with the US is the need to bolster support for Ireland's traders in the services sector, in particular, digital trade providers such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Foreign-owned enterprises account for 80% of Ireland's services exports, the second highest of the OECD countries, as reported in its Services Trade Restrictiveness Index report 2025. This leaves Ireland more exposed than most countries to US trade pressures, as the vast majority of these Ireland-based multinationals are US-owned. Retaining these global digital players in Ireland must continue to be a priority for the Government, but also there is an urgent need to do more to develop indigenous Irish companies, to ensure more controllable and sustainable growth of the services exports sector. Amazon scraps plan for plant Amazon's scrapping of its plan to build an industrial plant in Dublin, involving a €300m investment which would employ more than 500, because it did not receive the necessary Government guarantees about power supplies the plant would require, is a clear indicator of the challenges faced in retaining the multinationals in Ireland. This Amazon project loss is a critical blow to our attempts to stay up with the global AI tech race, as the now scuttled project involved the creation of an AI testing and manufacturing facility and not a data centre. It would also have enabled the training of a fresh cohort of employees, who could in the future enable the setting up of indigenous AI start-ups. To date, Enterprise Ireland, which supports Irish-owned companies, has failed to significantly grow the service exporting industry. Enterprise Ireland client companies account for under 2% of our total service trade exports. The other 18% of the services exports from Ireland come from entrepreneurs who have built their export businesses without State support. Many of them depend on good access to digital services platforms provided by the likes of Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which again underscores the critical reliance on the connection with the US. Reducing dependence on the US and deepening EU integration in services could be achieved by encouraging more innovation and stimulating much-needed investment. An easy win should be with the UK, which last year imported €314bn in services, but only €12bn from Ireland. Service sector reforms are, of course, not going to be easy, either in their politics or in their execution. The freedom to establish a company in another EU country and the freedom to provide or receive services in another EU country are already established for many services through the EU Services Directive — but implementation has been weak. Services regulations are complex and highly decentralised. In many EU member states, reforms are often implemented by professional associations, who may have a bias against reforms or even a conflict of interest. Many professions and industries thrive on the fees that regulatory constraints generate — and you and I, as service users, are rarely aware of the costs that these regulations impose on us. Read More Trump and von der Leyen set for crunch meeting on EU-US trade talks
