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Leah Farrell
swing-gate
Maria Bailey resigns as chair of two more Oireachtas committees following 'swing-gate'
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last month sacked Bailey from the position of chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing.
FINE GAEL TD Maria Bailey has resigned as chair of two more Oireachtas committees in the wake of her now dropped personal injury claim against the Dean Hotel.
TheJournal.ie has learned that Bailey has formally resigned as Chair of the Select Committee on Members Interests along with her role as Chair of the Working Group on Committee Chairs.
A letter to committee secretariat Charles Hearne, which has been published on Independent.ie confirmed the Dun Laoighaire TD resigned in order to continue “the smooth running” of the committees.
“As you are aware the Taoiseach made a decision to demote me and remove me as Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government,” she said.
“I now feel that in the interests of the smooth running of the Select Committee on Members Interests (Dáil Éireann) it would be best for me to resign as Chair of the Committee,” she said.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last month sacked Bailey from the position of Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, which came with a €9,500 salary.
The sanction comes following an internal party review carried out by David Kennedy SC which has found that she “overstated” the impact of injuries she suffered following a fall at the Dean Hotel in Dublin.
In a statement following that, Bailey said she regrets taking the case and that she “made no attempt to mislead”.
Court documents lodged as part of the case stated that Bailey could not run for three months after the fall but the TD ran a 10km race three weeks after the incident.
Varadkar had been under pressure to publish details of the review.
Commenting afterwards he said: “It is clear to me, that Deputy Bailey made numerous errors of judgement in her handling of this matter from the outset, during and even after she’d withdrawn the case.”
“And her approach jars with that of a Government taking action to reduce personal injury payments, claims and insurance costs to people and businesses,” he added.
