Brian Stanley should answer to Dáil over tweets, says Helen McEntee
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The Justice Minister has suggested Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley should come before the Dáil to explain and apologise for tweets he sent.
Helen McEntee has said it would be “appropriate” for Mr Stanley address the Dáil on the matter.
“When we make commentary and when we do so publicly, You know, we need to be clear in what we are saying and what exactly we mean by it and I would like to get that clarity from him, whether it's in the Dáil, yes, to me that would be appropriate,” she said.
She added that she would also like to hear from party leader Mary Lou McDonald.
“My own view is that it referred very negatively and in a completely inappropriate way to the sexuality of my own party leader. And I do think he needs to clarify why he tweeted it and what exactly it was in reference to and I think that's not just a political thing I think LGBT groups would share the same view.”
Speaking on LMFM radio, Ms McEntee said: “I’m not in the business of demanding people resign, that's not the way I work and I don't think it's the way our party work in in politics. But I do think more answers need to be given.”
Earlier the Finance Minister launched a scathing attack on the Sinn Féin TD claiming his apology for controversial tweets sent is "not enough".
Paschal Donohoe hit out at Sinn Féin claiming their tone and how they deal with issues "poisons the well of how we debate politics in our country".
Mr Stanley deleted his Twitter account last night after a tweet, which was taken as offensive to LGBT people, was highlighted.
Mr Donohoe said the tweet, which was about Leo Varadkar, was "utterly unacceptable" and called on party leader Mary-Lou McDonald to explain why he needed to delete his twitter account.
"You can't be making those kinds of comments in that kind of tone about anybody. You can't link up somebody's sexuality with the job that they do. We're a different and better country than that."
The tweet, posted in 2017 read: "Yippee 4 d tory. it's Leo. U can do what u like in bed but don't look 4 a pay rise the next morning."
The tweet resurfaced just days after Mr Stanley came under fire for another tweet celebrating two historical IRA attacks on the British army.
Asked if Mr Stanley should now resign as the chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Donohoe said that if Mr Stanley can't provide "a credible explanation" that he has "questions to answer regarding why he should stay in that role".
However, Mr Donohoe told RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme that there are more serious questions to answer around his decision to delete his online accounts.
"What other comments are there? I think the two questions that he needs to answer is, number one: Why should he still be in that role? And number two: Why was it necessary to delete his social media account?
"They are questions that Mary Lou McDonald and that Sinn Féin must answer today, their tone on politics, their tone about how they speak about those who have different political views to them in many cases, I don't believe is acceptable.
"I believe it poisons the well of how we debate politics in our country," he said.
Separately Mr Donohoe said any move to extend the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) until the full vaccination programme has been rolled out are the "kinds of decisions that were made in 2021".
"We will have to get our national finances back to a position of balance over time. We can however avoid the horrendous difficulties that we faced a decade ago by continuing to make sensible choices regarding for example the Pandemic Unemployment Payments, regarding for example exceptional pieces of expenditure that we have to have in place while we have this disease in our country," he said.