FORMER SOCIALIST PARTY TD Clare Daly has insisted her resignation from the party has nothing to do with any connection she has to fellow independent TD Mick Wallace.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio this afternoon, Daly dismissed claims from her former party which said she “now places more value on her political connection with Independent TD Mick Wallace than on the political positions and work of the Socialist Party”.
“The first thing to be said here is that I’m the one who resigned from the Socialist Party,” Daly said.
“It’s hardly credible to think that I would do that because of some spurious connection with Mick Wallace.”
Daly added that it was “a bit insulting really” to suggest that she would leave a political party of which she had been a member for over 15 years simply because of a connection to another TD, about whom she supported the Socialist Party’s position.
Instead, she said, her resignation had come about because of frustration at the progress in building the United Left Alliance into a “real, serious political alternative to Labour which I think is badly needed”.
Daly said this was something she would now be prioritising as a TD within that alliance but outside of the Socialist Party itself.
The fact that I may have had differences with the leadership is neither here nor there… The left has to get its act together and put forward broad, serious political alternatives. I’m going forward to build that.
Daly also hinted at a potential funding row with her former party – saying she would be asking it to hand over a portion of its ‘party leaders’ allowance’ to reflect its reduced Dáil numbers.
The Socialist Party is currently entitled to €143,040 a year in Exchequer funding, as it had two TDs – Daly and Joe Higgins – elected at the last Dáil. This remains the case for the lifetime of the current Dáil, even though Daly has now left the party.
Daly, meanwhile, is not automatically entitled to the €41,152 that independent members have received – but says she has asked the Socialist Party to give her this amount.
It was “unrealistic” for the Socialist Party to continue receiving over €71,000 a year on her behalf, she said. “They should allocate some of that monies to me.”
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