Sinn Féin has decided to nominate Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell as the new chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), replacing the party’s former TD Brian Stanley.
The move looks set to prompt a bitter political clash, with the Labour party indicating that it will not facilitate the nomination while Government TDs have said they would not work with a new Sinn Féin chair of the PAC.
Mr Stanley resigned from the party last weekend, strongly criticising an internal inquiry into a complaint against him which he described as a “kangaroo court”.
It is expected that the nomination will be discussed by the Dáil business committee on Thursday. As Ms Farrell is an existing member of the PAC, committee sources expect the next substantive step will be that her name will be sent to the Dáil for approval next week.
It is expected some members of the business committee will object, but sources said there will not be a vote at that committee. Appointments of new chairs are usually a formality in the Dáil and taken without a debate, but the Government could seek to force a vote on it.
A Fine Gael source said the party will object at the committee and the issue is likely to go to a vote of the house, and it will then consider its next steps. A party source said there was serious concern within the party with proceeding on a “business as usual” basis. The party wants clarity on the nature of allegations against Mr Stanley referred to gardaí.
The complaint about Mr Stanley contained no criminal allegations, and he subsequently made a counter-complaint. Sinn Féin has said he was advised by the party to go to the Garda with concerns he raised, and the party later referred the entire matter to the force.
Social Democrats whip Cian O’Callaghan, who sits on the business committee, said the party would not oppose the nomination going to the Dáil for a debate and a vote.
He left the door open, however, to his party ultimately voting against Ms Farrell’s nomination if one were to come to pass. “In advance of the vote we think Sinn Féin have questions to answer about why they left Brian Stanley in place as PAC chair while investigating serious complaints involving him,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Labour leader Ivana Bacik said: “We will not facilitate any alternative Sinn Féin nominee because we don’t know what we’re getting with a Sinn Féin nominee.”
Sinn Féin is also expected to submit Matt Carthy TD to the business committee as a new member of the PAC to replace Mr Stanley.
In Mr Stanley’s expected absence from the PAC meeting due to be held on Thursday, the committee’s deputy chair Catherine Murphy is due to chair the meeting.
Sinn Féin’s whip Padraig MacLochlainn said he expected the appointment to be facilitated in line with Dáil standing orders and convention around the PAC chair being held by the main opposition party.
“What I would expect to happen is the standing orders of the Dáil will be respected, as of our political strength we are entitled to three members and entitled to the chair,” he said on Wednesday.
Mr MacLochlainn was highly critical of any move to frustrate the appointment, describing it as “frankly outrageous”. He said such a step would be an “extraordinary political intervention by some parties which is clearly anti-democratic”.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald emphasised Ms Farrell’s credentials and sought to focus attention on the Government and State spending.
“The Public Accounts Committee performs a very important function in its scrutiny of how public money is spent and holding the government and other bodies to account,” she said.
“It is particularly important when we have a government that is synonymous with serial waste and incompetence when it comes to the public purse”.
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