INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Catherine Connolly’s opponents have accused her of circumventing the vetting process for the hiring of people to work in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The Journal reported earlier this week that Connolly had hired Ursula Ní Shionnáin as an administrative assistant to work in Leinster House.

Ní Shionnáin was sentenced to six years in prison in 2014 after being found guilty by the Special Criminal Court of unlawful possession of firearms and possession of ammunition. She was released from prison in 2018. 

Connolly said that Ní Shionnáin worked for her in Leinster House in 2019 for less than six months while the vetting process was underway and that she left of her volition after that period. 

Connolly said she herself signed Ní Shionnáin into Leinster House during that period and that clearance was never ultimately granted. 

During today’s presidential debate on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, both Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys and Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin rounded on Connolly, accusing her of circumventing due process by signing in Ní Shionnáin when she did not have clearance.

Humphreys said it was “important” to point out the sentencing by the Special Criminal Court for firearms charges.

“That’s a very serious offence,” she said. “Not many people go in front of the Special Criminal Court. But the point here is, we all know that when you bring staff into the Houses of the Oireachtas, you must have garda clearance.”

Put to her by host Áine Lawlor that many members of the Oireachtas have had criminal records over the years, Humphreys replied: “There are rules here for employing staff. The people that are elected have gone before the people and that they’ve been elected to Dáil Éireann.”

“What I’m saying is there are rules around staff there. I’d like to know when did Catherine start bringing that person in? I believe she was there for six months without garda vetting. It normally takes two to three weeks to process the garda vetting,” Humphreys said.

Connolly contested this, saying that “no rules had been broken”.

“No rules were broken here. The person filled out her application form, made a full and wholesome declaration and the process took place. There was no appeal, no decision made,” Connolly said. 

“That is circumventing the rules,” Humphreys responded. 

Gavin said the “substantial issue is that somebody was bypassing the security process”.

As President, “you’re getting access to a lot of security information. From my professional knowledge, if you’re signing somebody in every day with a day pass, you’re bypassing all those security arrangements”, he added.

In a statement to The Journal, the House of the Oireachtas has said that the hiring of staff is a matter for TDs and Senators. 

“Under the Scheme for Secretarial Assistance, political staff are directly employed by Members of the Oireachtas with payroll and other administrative services provided by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service,” the statement said. 

The selection and recruitment of employees under the Scheme are wholly a matter for members.

Ursula Ní Shionnáin photographed outside court in 2014. Collins Courts Collins Courts

Connolly has defended her hiring of Ní Shionnáin on multiple occasions, stating that she was a “model prisoner” and “perfect for the job”.

She said she believes in rehabilitation and that Ní Shionnáin was recommended to her by a number of former TDs, including Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív and Independent Clare Daly.

Ní Shionnáin has a degree from Trinity College Dublin in early and modern Irish and a Masters in language planning from the University of Galway.

She was a member of socialist Republican party Éírigí at the time of her conviction.

Connolly was asked today if she was misled about the timeline of her former employee’s membership of the party.

In response, she said Éirigí is a registered political party and was not the only group not to support the Good Friday Agreement.