Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley to apologise for 'insensitive' tweet

Sinn Féin TD and Public Accounts Committee chair Brian Stanley is to apologise unreservedly for sending a tweet about the murder of British soldiers amid calls for him to resign. Picture: Gareth Chaney Collins

Sinn Féin TD and Public Accounts Committee chair Brian Stanley is to apologise unreservedly for sending a tweet about the murder of British soldiers amid calls for him to resign.

The PAC is to meet at 4.30pm and according to Sinn Féin sources, Mr Stanley will offer a full apology for his now-deleted tweet which he accepts was “inappropriate and insensitive".

Despite this, members of the PAC said an apology is not sufficient and more action is required.

Vice-chair of the PAC, Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy has said what Mr Stanley said was “very serious” and requires a fuller response.

She said it is an internal disciplinary matter for Sinn Féin to resolve but said she is not threatening to withdraw from the PAC unless he resigns.

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said Mr Stanley will not be removed as the PAC chair, which brings a stipend of €10,000 a year on top of his €97,000-a-year TD’s salary.

Labour party leader Alan Kelly has said that if anyone from his party had behaved in the same way as Brian Stanley they would not continue to hold the position of chair of the Public Accounts Committee.

“If anybody in my party did what he did, they wouldn’t be holding that position,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

He needs to be dealt with by the Sinn Féin leadership.

Mr Kelly described the tweet sent by Brian Stanley as “abhorrent”. 

The Labour party leader said that previously he would have viewed Mr Stanley as “one of the milder people in Sinn Féin” but that sending the tweet had been “so wrong.” A precedent had now been set for how TDs behave, said Mr Kelly.