THE JUSTICE MINISTER has said he believes presidential candidate Catherine Connolly did not follow Leinster House security rules when she signed a woman who was convicted of a gun crime offence into Leinster House on a daily basis.

Ursula Ní Shionnáin, hired by Connolly in 2018, did not have garda vetting at the time for the role, which was based in Leinster House.

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan today criticised Connolly for what he said was a failure to follow Oireachtas rules.

“I think the first thing is that the rules should be followed,” O’Callaghan said.

“We can put in place a whole series of rules which are dependent upon members agreeing to the rules that we put in place. Unfortunately, when rules are in place, if they’re not followed, there can be very negative consequences from that.

There were rules in place and they weren’t followed, and I don’t think that’s acceptable.”

As revealed by The Journal last week Catherine Connolly hired Ursula Ní Shionnáin as an administrative support when the TD was on the Oireachtas committee for the Irish language in 2018.

Ní Shionnáin, who also goes by Shannon, was sentenced to six years in jail in 2014 after being found guilty by the Special Criminal Court of unlawful possession of firearms and possession of ammunition. The former Trinity student was arrested with other people in car moments before they were to launch a robbery on a gun dealer.

At the time Ní Shionnain was a member of republican socialist group Érigí at the time.

There are contradicting statements and information in regard to whether Ní Shionnan was being security vetted or not at the time of her work in Leinster House. 

Some have said that signing a person in daily is not an issue, while other politicians have said that it is a breach.

Connolly has defended her attempts to hire Ní Shionnan and denied that there was anything improper in what happened. 

Connolly also states that she was signing Ní Shionnan in on a daily basis. She had attempted to hire the PhD candidate for her expertise in the Irish language.

O’Callaghan said: “We’ve all got to comply with the rules. They shouldn’t be dependent upon the circumstances of an individual deputy or indeed a person coming in. There are rules in place. People are required to be vetted if they’re coming into the Oireachtas to work – that wasn’t done.”

O’Callaghan said he agreed that people who have been freed having served a prison sentence should be afforded the opportunity to be employed, but said that the issue here was access to Leinster House for someone who did not have security clearance.

“Of course we all believe in rehabilitation, and persons who come out from prison, we should try to reintegrate them into the community. But the issue here was providing access to Leinster House to an individual who hadn’t been vetted.

“In those circumstances, I think Catherine should have ensured that there was proper vetting done, as opposed to just giving a daily pass to the individual coming in. It was like, if any of us want to hire or ask somebody to come in to work with us, we have to get them garda vetted. That wasn’t done,” he said. 

Sources have confirmed that Catherine Connolly signed Ursula Ní Shionnan into Leinster House daily. Security sources have also said that gardaí were monitoring the situation.