Ryan satisfied with approach to Leddin WhatsApp controversy

No sanction needed for Green TD over messages says party leader

 Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan doesn't believe in sanctioning party colleague for his WhatsApp messages.

Eamon Ryan says he agrees that no sanction should have been taken against one of his TDs who degraded an independent councillor.

Brian Leddin was not formally sanctioned by the Green Party Executive after WhatsApp messages appeared in which he called Elisa O'Donovan "unhinged" and saying she "craved fame".

Mr Leddin did not respond to others in the group who degraded other prominent women in Limerick.

Eamon Ryan says not punishing his TD was the right approach.

 Limerick Cllr Elisa O'Donovan has called for Green Party TD Brian Leddin to resign. 

"I came in at the end of the executive meeting which considered that, but also the next day we reconvened and I agreed with the approach that the executive took," he said.

"We have a huge amount of work to do and have been doing a lot of work in the last year, in how we do what we've always done, trying to insist on dignity and respect, particularly on social media networks where there's a tendency, there's a characteristic of those networks, that they tend to divide, they tend to polarise."

Mr Ryan said dignity and respect were not on display in Brian Leddin's exchange.

"That's what we all acknowledge and Brian apologised for that, but it's critical that actually we, in what we do today, we show that dignity and respect."

 Activist Harper Cleves speaks during a protest by socialist feminist group ROSA outside Green Party offices on Suffolk Street in Dublin, calling for the resignation of Brian Leddin last week.

Mr Ryan says the party has mechanisms now and has invested "hugely, so if someone is actually showing disrespect, you do intervene, you do say sorry."

The Green Party leader added that he is "perfectly close with my own colleagues" and does not expect any of his TDs to vote against a motion of No Confidence in Simon Coveney on Wednesday.