FORMER SINN FÉIN TD Brian Stanley, who resigned from the party last Saturday over an inquiry into a complaint made against him by a party colleague, has accused Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald of “abusing Dail privilege” in statements she made about him yesterday.

McDonald said yesterday that the woman who made the complaint against the Laois-Offaly TD had been “traumatised”. Sinn Féin has said the complaint is not criminal in nature.

“The complaint made against Deputy Stanley is very serious. The complaint relates to an incident that took place in October 2023 and relates to Deputy Stanley’s personal behaviour leaving the complainant, in her words, traumatised and distressed,” McDonald said.

“In the course of the inquiry into the complaint against Deputy Stanley he raised a counter allegation against the complainant, and a very serious one.

“The allegation caused deep concern and Deputy Stanley was advised he should go to the gardaí. He chose not to,” she said. 

But in a statement published by Laois Today, Stanley has said the Sinn Féin leader had abused Dáil privilege “in a desperate attempt to shift the focus from her own party’s practices regarding a ‘complaint’ against me, the contents of which I refute”.

“This comes after days of inaccurate statements and insinuations from Sinn Féin, along with selective briefings delivered with the clear intention of damaging my reputation and to shift the spotlight off the party,” he said.

“What was also revealing from her statement in the Dáil, is the level of double standards that now operate and pertain in Sinn Féin.”

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The fallout from Stanley’s surprise resignation has seen differing accounts of who knew what and when, with McDonald and Stanley giving different dates for when the complaint against him was made.

Stanley’s statement to Laois Today reiterated his account, including that the complaint against him, which was not deemed criminal in nature, was lodged on 26 July.