LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago

THE CHAIRMAN OF the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee Brian Stanley has resigned as a Sinn Féin TD.

The Laois-Offaly TD – one of the party’s best-known figures in Leinster House – said last night he was stepping away after 40 years of membership due to what he called a “seriously flawed” internal investigation in the party.

“I am announcing my resignation from Sinn Féin with immediate effect. After 40 years of service to Sinn Féin, I will now continue working as an Independent Republican TD of behalf of constituents, who have always treated me in a fair and respectful manner,” Stanley said.

In a statement published last night, he said that “on foot of a ‘complaint’ I was recently brought before an internal party ‘inquiry’”.

“Given what has transpired and the work of my legal team, what is very clear, is this process lacked objectivity, was seriously flawed and was devoid of impartiality.”

His statement added: 

“Considering what I have experienced and how Sinn Féin has dealt with this and other matters across the wider party in recent months, I can no longer have confidence in it.”

Stanley has been a TD for Laois-Offaly since 2011. He was first elected to Laois County Council in 1999.

As the head of the influential PAC, the Dáil’s public spending committee, since 2020 he has made frequent media appearances in recent years and was particularly prominent at the height of last year’s RTÉ financial controversy. 

Stanley confirmed the resignation to The Journal this morning.

The resignation comes on foot of the same for the party’s TD for Kildare South Patricia Ryan, amid her claims that the party had “undermined” her.

The party is also dealing with the ongoing fallout over references provided by two staff members for a former employee who’d been suspended from Sinn Féin as he was the target of a probe into child sexual offences.