SENATOR LYNN RUANE has hit out at comments made by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in the Dáil yesterday where he referred to Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty’s arrest as a 20-year-old. 

Ruane, who has worked tirelessly in many areas of social justice, told The Journal that “it’s not necessarily about Pearse or Leo for me, it’s about the words that you say, and how they impact communities”.

We should be encouraging people to get on with their lives and not “shaming” people for “mistakes that they made in their past or in their childhoods or as teenagers or even in their 20s,” she said.

“All my work to date has been trying to bring awareness to that, so they feel empowered, and not be judged, by the things they may have done in the past,” said the senator.

“Leo or Pearse or politicians in general, it’s this idea that they’re only having conversations with each other, and not realising that there’s a whole society out there that are watching the engagement, that see themselves in that argument,” she added.

Personalised spat

Doherty and Varadkar clashed in a bitter exchange of personal insults in the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions yesterday.

Varadkar and Doherty were debating the cost-of-living crisis when the Fine Gael leader was accused of being “out of touch” on the matter.

Doherty, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman said the Tanaiste should be “a bit more humble” in his response given that the DPP is considering allegations against him under the Corruption Act.

Varadkar accused Doherty of hurling another “cheap shot” and a very personal shot against him during leaders’ questions.

“It says a lot about you, and the nature and character of the kind of person you are and it’s particularly strange coming from you because you were prosecuted,” Varadkar added.

You abused, mistreated a garda siochána. For that you were prosecuted, you were found guilty. Yes, you got away without a conviction because of your age at the time. But you were actually prosecuted, you were arrested. That’s what happened to you.

In a statement following the exchange, Doherty said: “Almost three decades ago I was involved in a very minor breach of the peace in Dublin city centre. It was dealt with under the probation act. It has been covered in the media on numerous occasions.

“The fact that the Tánaiste has to grasp for this to cover his decade long failure in government is very telling. He would be better off doing his job and supporting people who can’t heat their home or put diesel in their car to get to work,” he said.

‘Shaming’

Commenting on the spat between the two leaders, Ruane said “to bring up something that happened a quarter of a century ago when the whole thing is we should be encouraging people if they ever got involved with the gardaí or if they were ever arrested, that one day they can separate themselves from that and be contributing members of society and not to be judged on something that they did 25 years ago.”

She said what Varadkar brought up yesterday has “no relevance to the job” the Sinn Féin TD is doing today. 

“Pearse, like everyone in there [the Dáil] is a hard-working politician that’s trying to do the right thing, whether you agree with him or not, and that should be celebrated and we should be celebrating that in any person who goes on to not continue to be engaged in the justice system or arrested,” she said.

She said it should be seen as a “good thing” that following his experience that he has gone on to be one of the opposition’s leading TDs.

Senator Lynn Ruane Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Stigma

Conversations that took place in the Dáil yesterday “really stigmatises people, because they might have been arrested at some stage in their lives and that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re a bad person”. 

She added: 

But the way it played out yesterday in the Dáil, it was used as an insult. It was used as an insult as a way to degrade somebody. But Pearse is not the only one being degraded. Every single other person that has ever been in a situation where they’ve had an instance with justice system is being degraded.

She said to hear something of this kind being “used as a political tool” and to forget the bigger connotations in terms of society is wrong. 

The senator said the comments will send the wrong message to doctors, nurses, social workers, those that work in factories, volunteers, or any worker “that had an indiscretion in their life at some stage, and especially people from working class communities” that they don’t deserve a second chance or to make something of themselves.

Spent convictions bill

Ruane told The Journal that comments go against the position the Government has taken recently on spent convictions.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee has supported Ruane’s bill on spent convictions, which seeks to prohibit discrimination on the basis of a conviction that has become spent, as well as establishing a legal route where someone can apply to have a conviction declared spent, through the courts or an independent assessment board.

The minster has launched a public consultation on spent convictions as a result.

Ruane said the Government supported the idea of a person getting a “second chance” so they can “get on with their lives and are not judged on what they’ve done in the past”.

“So their own politics and policy to support a greater spent conviction regime is in conflict and with dialogue and conversations like that in the Dáil, and it actually brings the party back backwards, rather than when it looks like they’re taking forward steps in terms of being able to actually have a society that wants all members of society to flourish even if they have made mistakes,” she said.