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Irish Times
29-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Sinn Féin moves to overhaul party structures after series of scandals
Sinn Féin has moved to overhaul its governance structures after the party was rocked by a series of scandals last year. In a message to the ard comhairle, Sinn Féin's governing body, party general secretary Sam Baker said the moves were initiated by party leader Mary Lou McDonald following separate incidents of 'inappropriate behaviour' by several now former elected representatives and staff. A former party press officer, Michael McMonagle, was last year jailed for child sexual offences . It also emerged that the former Sinn Féin leader in the Seanad, Niall Ó Donnghaile, resigned after sending inappropriate texts to a 16-year-old . The party did not disclose the reason for his resignation at the time. READ MORE Separately, Brian Stanley , the party's former Laois-Offaly TD, now an Independent deputy, resigned after a draft report by the party reached a provisional conclusion of gross misconduct against him, following a complaint by a woman of sexual harassment. Mr Stanley denied any wrongdoing and disputed the events in question, insisting the complaint was politically motivated. He contested how the inquiry was conducted. In his message, Mr Baker said a King's Counsel has been commissioned to undertake a comprehensive review of Sinn Féin's disciplinary procedures. He said a full-time external human resource manager has been commissioned. An independent expert has also be appointed to undertake an audit and offer recommendations on how to improve the party's human resources handbook for employees. A social work and safeguarding consultant has completed a draft of a Sinn Féin child protection policy and the party has appointed a national corporate governance director, he added. 'Now that we can report significant progress, it is now essential that the party nationally urgently adopts the new policies and processes which have been developed with the assistance of independent expert advice,' Mr Baker wrote. Ms McDonald said: 'We are committed to ensuring the highest level of governance across Sinn Féin and that party management, staff and members are all aware of their responsibilities. Governance will be an ongoing part of our work and we will be reviewing all aspects of this annually.' A spokesman for the party said a report earlier on Wednesday, which suggested the review had resulted in its former MP and European Parliament candidate Michelle Gildernew losing her position with the party, was incorrect. The party said a 'number of totally unconnected processes within the party' had been 'mistakenly conflated'. 'A small number of staff who were on short-term temporary contracts finished their posts at different times over the last three months,' the spokesman said. 'One of them was Michelle Gildernew. I have no doubt that Michelle will continue to be at the heart of what we do, and I hope will be available for other posts.'
Irish Independent
25-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Sinn Féin's John Brady to chair high-profile Public Accounts Committee
The party has revealed the seven TDs who will take up the coveted roles, who will be entitled to an additional €10,000 per year for the positions. Mairead Farrell took over the PAC chair position from former Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley, but only held the position for a number of weeks before the dissolution of the Dáil ahead of the general election. Now the party's spokesperson for Public Expenditure, Ms Farrell will take over the chairpersonship on the Finance Committee from Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness. While Mr Brady is not part of the new front bench announced earlier this year, the position of PAC chair is an influential one and the committee previously played a central role in scrutinising the RTÉ payments scandal in the last Dáil term. There are a number of issues that will be already in the sights of PAC, including the overspend on the controversial IT system by the Arts Council. Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy will take on the chair of the Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Committee. Mr Carthy is Sinn Féin's spokesperson on Justice. Chair of the Disability Matters committee has been given to Limerick City TD Maurice Quinlivan, who ran in the recent Limerick mayoral election. Party spokesperson on Enterprise, Rose Conway-Walsh will be the chairperson of the Defence and National Security Committee. Louise O'Reilly, Sinn Féin's social protection spokesperson, will take on the chairperson role for the Petitions Committee, while Waterford TD Conor McGuinness will be the chair of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs. ADVERTISEMENT 'This is the largest number of committees that Sinn Féin has ever chaired in the Dáil, and are committees that will set the political direction for the coming years in ensuring zero tolerance for the waste of taxpayers money, having a migration system that works and standing up for Irish neutrality,' Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said. Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin chairs 'will work day and night' to hold this government to account and 'ensure taxpayers money is spent properly'. 'It is vital that all committees get to work quickly. The government have stalled for long enough and instead of dragging this work out for another month they need to speed up the process and allow Committees to get to work,' she added. Yesterday government parties revealed which TDs will take on chairperson roles in 15 committees. These included Fianna Fáil's Erin McGreehan, who will chair the Committee on Further & Higher Education and Fine Gael's Micheál Carrigy will be the chair of the Committee on Housing. Other opposition chair positions announced this week include Labour TD Alan Kelly who will chair the Media, Arts and Culture Committee and Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice will chair the Committee on Health.
