Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has said Sinn Féin needs to explain why the party referred a complaint about Brian Stanley, and a counter allegation, to gardaí now and not when it was made aware of them.
Speaking before the Cabinet meeting, he said many questions remain unanswered.
It comes after Sinn Féin’s Director of Elections Matt Carthy said that before Saturday he did not know that Brian Stanley would not be standing as a general election candidate for the party.
Appearing on RTÉ’s Upfront with Katie Hannon last night, it was put to the Cavan-Monaghan TD that Mr Stanley said the timing of a complaint against him “had the effect of preventing” him from contesting as a Sinn Féin candidate for Laois.
Mr Carthy said his party had “very robust structures and procedures” when complaints are made against party members.
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Deputy Stanley and Sinn Féin are locked in a war of words over an internal party inquiry that led to his resignation from the party and its decision on Sunday to refer a complaint to gardaí.
Sinn Féin has said that Mr Stanley was advised to go to the gardaí when he raised matters of concern during a preliminary party inquiry examining the complaint made against him.
However, a party spokesperson said Mr Stanley chose not to do this, adding that he was accompanied by his barrister and solicitor and was fully advised of his rights and entitlements.
The party has confirmed the date it received the complaint about Mr Stanley as 26 July.
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Last night, Mr Carthy said he was appointed Director of Elections last week and that he does not follow every constituency convention.
He said: “I assume sitting TDs are seeking election unless someone tells me otherwise, and up until last week the only instance of that was Imelda Munster in Louth.”
Mr Carthy added: “Up until Saturday I would have assumed that Brian was our candidate, and I would have been happy with that because my experience of working with Brian Stanley has always been a positive one.”
He said he first heard about the matter on Saturday night but added that a journalist had contacted him “a number of weeks ago” to ask if he was aware of a complaint made against Brian Stanley.
While Mr Carthy said he believed this was “actually a good news story for Irish politics”, when asked if he thought it was a good news story for his party he said, “no I don’t”.
Mr Stanley’s departure from Sinn Féin comes just days after Kildare-South TD Patricia Ryan resigned from the party.
McDonald has ‘opportunity to answer basic questions’ – Taoiseach
Taoiseach Simon Harris said Ms McDonald has an opportunity to answer basic questions about the timeline and process in relation to complaints made about Mr Stanley.
Also speaking before Cabinet, Mr Harris said he hopes Ms McDonald will put “all of the information out on the table” in relation to extraordinarily serious issues around child protection.
He said recent events are “so serious and so grave” that they do not require “political potshots”.
“Some of the issues that we’ve heard over the last week or so are actually so serious and so grave, what they don’t require is political potshots.
“What we should see today is the leader of Sinn Féin take the opportunity to answer basic questions around timeline, around process and around extraordinarily serious issues to do with the protection of children,” the Taoiseach said.
“We shouldn’t need to have a drip feed of information.
“I’ve consistently said I believe the leader of Sinn Féin, my political difference aside, to be a decent person, and today is an opportunity to put all the information out on the table for once and for all.
“There’s an opportunity today to provide the information on what are extraordinarily serious and grave issues, and I hope Deputy McDonald takes that opportunity and does the right thing,” Mr Harris added.
Additional reporting Laura Fletcher
