The Green Party has initiated a disciplinary process, following comments by the party’s Clare Senator about deputy leader Catherine Martin.
The comments by Róisín Garvey were reportedly made in a Whatsapp messaging group, which included a number of people who had backed party leader Eamon Ryan’s re-election.
A Green Party Spokesperson has told The Irish Examiner that Senator Garvey has since apologised to Catherine Martin for the comments, which she says were made in a heated moment, and the Minster has accepted her apology.
The party says the incident has been reported and a disciplinary process has been initiated – that it does not tolerate abusive behaviour and that every incident that’s reported to the party is followed up on.
In a Statement to Clare FM today, Senator Garvey said “It was a stupid comment in the heat of the moment and one I wont be using again as it’s never good to use bad language, even in a private whatsapp group”.
“I’ve always been passionate and I was passionate about getting stuck into getting down to work for the people of Clare and the country. The leadership race was in my opinion poorly timed. That’s is all”
“Myself and Catherine Martin have always got on and we still get on well and have moved passed that comment from a few weeks ago”.
“In fact, she has taken up my invite to holiday in Clare and has accepted the offer and I will be showing her and her family around our beautiful county the week after next. As minister for Tourism it is great that she has decided to holiday in Clare”, she concluded.
