FORMER TD MARIA Bailey has initiated defamation proceedings against the publishers of the Irish Mirror newspaper, MGN Ltd.

The High Court legal proceedings were issued yesterday. Bailey, a former TD for Dún Laoghaire in Dublin, is being represented by Osbornes solicitors.

In January, Bailey confirmed she would not contest the following month’s general election.

She pulled out of the race after a decision from Fine Gael in November to remove her from the election ticket in the constituency.

Bailey had been under scrutiny over a personal injury case against the Dean Hotel in Dublin, which she launched after she fell off a swing on the premises. 

The incident happened in July 2015, when she was a county councillor, and came to media attention after a story was published in the Irish Independent in 2019.

She later dropped the case.

Bailey was demoted by being removed as chairwoman of the Oireachtas Housing Committee following an internal party review which found that she “overstated” the extent of her injuries.

In an RTÉ radio interview with Sean O’Rourke in May 2019, she said the swing had not been properly supervised at the time of her fall.

TheJournal.ie has contacted Bailey, Osbornes and MGN for comment.

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