O’Malley to Grealish: Quit if you’re quitting
PD senator Fiona O’Malley expressed irritation at the way uncertainty over whether the west Galway TD was about to jump ship to Fianna Fáil was “distracting” the party.
In a thinly veiled rebuke to one of the PDs’ two remaining Dáil members, Ms O’Malley said Mr Grealish owed it to the party workers who had got him elected in the first place to make his intentions known.
Mr Grealish refused to comment on the matter, insisting any defection talk was just “speculation”.
He said it was public knowledge he has had talks with FF, but he planned to attend a PD parliamentary party meeting tomorrow.
Ms O’Malley said the TD owed it to the PDs to say whether he was going or not. “The matter has absorbed an awful lot of our energy and focus and it has been a distraction and we need to move on now from this situation.
“I’m sure he wants to clarify the position himself. In terms of the party and his colleagues who would have supported him and helped him retain his seat as a Progressive Democrat, he needs to return the compliment and give them clarity on what is happening.
“We do need to know Noel is dedicated to the future of the party and going to stick with it and I would hope that would be the case,” she said.
It had been expected Mr Grealish would remain with the PDs until next summer’s local elections, which are seen as the make-or-break moment for the party which once boasted of “breaking the mould of Irish politics”.
The eight PD TDs who went into the last general election where reduced to two — Mr Grealish and Mary Harney — with then the tánaiste Michael McDowell losing his seat.
The party has failed to make much impact with the electorate under new leader Senator Ciarán Cannon, and continued questions over Mr Grealish’s defection to FF has further damaged morale.
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