Wexford TD part of long tradition
He’s following in a tradition. There is a long line of TDs who have found themselves embroiled in controversy of varying degrees, yet doggedly clung on to their seats, as the following examples illustrate:
Michael Lowry: The Dáil passed a censure motion against the North Tipperary TD last year after the Moriarty Tribunal found he had helped Denis O’Brien win the state’s second mobile phone licence.
Mr Lowry rejected the findings, claimed he was a “soft target”, and refused to resign.
Fine Gael is targeting Mick Wallace now, but it should be remembered that party leader Enda Kenny did not distinguish himself when the Moriarty report was published. It took him some time to acknowledge that, in an “ideal world”, Mr Lowry should resign.
Willie O’Dea: In early 2010, Mr O’Dea came under fire over a false affidavit he had sworn in a court case in which he was being sued over remarks about a Sinn Féin election candidate. As the opposition ramped up the pressure by alleging perjury, Fianna Fáil’s coalition partners the Greens came looking for his head. Mr O’Dea eventually resigned as defence minister, but he remained in the Dáil, and portrayed himself as a victim, saying the affidavit had simply been a mistake based on flawed recollection and he had not committed perjury.
Bertie Ahern: As the Mahon Tribunal widened its investigation into Mr Ahern’s personal finances, the pressure eventually told and he was forced to step down as taoiseach in May 2008. He remained a backbench TD until stepping down at last year’s election. In his defence, there was arguably no case to step down from the Dáil, as the Mahon Tribunal did not actually report its damning findings until this year, long after he had departed the political scene.
But if he was no longer suitable to be taoiseach in May 2008, surely there was an argument he was not suitable to be a TD either?
Ivor Callely: Forced to resign as a junior minister in 2005, after it emerged that a construction firm had paid for painting work at his house in the 1990s.
However, he remained a TD. Come 2007, after Mr Callely lost his Dáil seat in the general election (the public unsurprisingly being less forgiving than his peers), Bertie Ahern took sympathy and gave him a Seanad seat instead.
Jim McDaid: In 2005, the former minister was fined €250 and disqualified from driving for two years after driving the wrong way down a road in Kildare following a drunken day out at the races in Punchestown.
However, Mr McDaid remained a TD and his constituents were sympathetic rather than judgmental, returning him to the Dáil in the 2007 general election. He stepped down of his own accord in 2010.
Michael Collins: The Limerick TD resigned from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party in 2003 after being outed as a tax evader.
But he remained as an Independent TD in the Dáil until the 2007 general election, when he stepped down.
Denis Foley: In 2000, it emerged that Mr Foley had been the holder of an Ansbacher account. He resigned from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, and, later that year, was suspended from the Dáil for 14 days for several breaches of ethics legislation. He served out his full term as a TD, stepping down only when the 2002 election swung around.
