DISAPPOINTMENT IS THE overall feeling in the Fianna Fáil party today following Marc MacSharry’s resignation of his membership. 

Disappointment is felt by MacSharry’s loyal colleagues over his treatment, but there is also disappointment felt by the usual Micheál Martin supporters who are now questioning the party leader’s handling of the whole debacle. 

TD Barry Cowen told The Journal said it was a “disappointing and unfortunate conclusion to the matter”.

TD James O’Connor said MacSharry “is a loss to the parliamentary party”. MacSharry resigned from Fianna Fáil citing the failure to properly handle a complaint made against him. 

Resignation 

The Sligo-Leitrim TD confirmed his resignation in a strongly worded statement this morning, saying his decision to quit was due to Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s handling of the complaint from Fianna Fáil councillor Donal Gilroy. 

He accused Martin of using the complaint “for political gain at national level”. 

“This has resulted from the failure of the Taoiseach as Leader of the party to allow a proper investigation of a recent complaint on a political issue made against me by a Fianna Fáil councillor in my constituency,” MacSharry wrote in a statement.

“This recent complaint related to exchanges between us over several months on services I have secured for Sligo University Hospital and their significance. It was a robust issue and robust language was used.

“Instead of arranging an investigation of this local political dispute, the Taoiseach used the complaint for political gain at national level to delay and prevent my re-admission to the parliamentary party.”

There were calls at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party last month to have MacSharry rejoin after he resigned last year and voted no confidence in Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney over his handling of the nomination of Katherine Zappone to a UN role. 

However, his readmittance hit a stumbling block, with party whip Jack Chambers and the Taoiseach telling members that “an issue has arisen” in bringing him back into the fold. 

Following that meeting, one TD said it was “wrong” to deal with an internal party matter in this way, stating that the discussion was shut down, while another “it was badly handled by the boss”.

The same sentiments rang through today, with a number of Fianna Fáil sources saying they do not believe party HQ and the party leader handled the internal dispute in a proper manner. 

It is no secret that there has been no love lost between MacSharry and Martin over the years, with MacSharry being openly critical of the party leadership for some time now. 

Some would rather MacSharry have kept his mouth closed rather than pointing out some of the pitfalls of being in Fianna Fáil, while others within the party have often said after an outburst in the parliamentary party meeting that he was just saying what most of the TDs and Senators were thinking from time to time. 

The view was often expressed that it was better to have a critic on the inside rather than the outside. 

But, that is now not going to be the case. 

‘It’s messy’

Speaking to a number of party sources, many said they expected better treatment of the Sligo-Leitrim TD after his years of service to the party. 

“It’s messy and it was handled messily,” said one TD, who added that from his point of view it was handled badly on both sides. 

They added that the overall feeling in the party is that MacSharry should have been readmitted to the parliamentary party and the Taoiseach or party HQ could have dealt with the complaint from there. 

Another said that the majority of TDs have had “heated discussions” with local councillors, adding that the language might not always have been as colourful, but that it was not unusual. 

MacSharry himself has admitted using ‘robust’ language and details of the complaint, which he himself released, allegedly showed the use of many four letter words.

One TD said that the party knew what buttons to push to make MacSharry react in such a way, stating that the matter should have been dealt with in a straightforward manner. They said MacSharry should have been readmitted to the parliamentary party and if something came from the internal investigation into the complaint, it should have been dealt with thereafter. 

A number of politicians mentioned the party’s drop by one point in the Red C poll, highlighting that the playing out of internal party disputes such as this is doing the party no favours. 

“It’s a mess,” said one TD, who said there has been no winner.