*Senator Martin Conway.
PRESSURE IS MOUNTING on Tánaiste Simon Harris (FG) over the manner in which Senator Martin Conway’s (FG) resignation from the Fine Gael parliamentary party has been handled while the Clare Oireachtas member is taking time off following the weekend revelations.
On Sunday morning, Senator Conway issued a statement resigning from the Fine Gael parliamentary party after it emerged he was arrested in Dublin last month and was also subject to a party internal investigation over “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female staff member of a TD in Leinster House.
Conway was arrested for intoxication on January 22nd on O’Connell Street in Dublin after he was found “on all fours” by members of An Garda Síochána. National media outlets have reported that he initially resisted arrest. He was later released without charge.
“In the early hours of Tuesday, January 22nd, I was arrested by An Garda Síochána on O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 for being in an intoxicated state due to consumption of sleeping tablets and alcohol. I was detained at Store Street Garda Station and subsequently released without charge a number of hours later,” Senator Conway confirmed.
He said this arrest “was not disclosed to the party. I would like to apologise unreservedly for this to my family, colleagues, supporters and my nominating body, Vision Ireland. I let myself down. I would also like to apologise to the members of An Garda Síochána for having to deal with this matter”.
“I have resigned from the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party. I understand that a disciplinary process will now commence,” Conway said.
The Clare Echo understands that party officials met with Conway in his native Ennistymon at The Falls Hotel on Saturday night before his resignation.
Conway is understood to be taking time off following the revelations which emerged over the weekend. “My mobile phone is not being answered at the moment,” is the automated message from Conway’s phone since early this week, efforts to contact him subsequent to his press statement have been unsuccessful.
On his way into a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning, Tánaiste Simon Harris (FG) was questioned on Conway’s resignation. Harris said he first became aware of the ‘inappropriate behaviour’ incident of 2018 “late last year” and that it was first raised with Fine Gael officials in 2020.
Harris stated, “From my perspective, when the issue had been examined, when an apology had been issued, when it was deemed at that stage that no further action was required, it would be a very unusual thing for a new leader to then reopen a matter in that context was deemed to require no further action”.
He said years had passed since the matter and that it was appropriate the Senator resigned from the party whip and that there will be a full investigation into the behaviour that led to the resignation. “Of course, any disciplinary process will also look at the person in the round. Has the person come to the attention of the party before. Have there been other issues. I don’t want to over comment on this until the disciplinary process has come to a conclusion but let me say this, I expect the highest standards to be upheld an I would expect that to be considered as part of this process”.
This disciplinary process has begun and could take a number of months to come to a conclusion. A hearing committee may consider the matter, with a number of possible sanctions.
In a statement to The Clare Echo, a spokesperson for Fine Gael commented, “Fine Gael notes Senator Martin Conway’s statement, apologies and his resignation of the party whip. The matter is now subject to a party disciplinary process”.
Less than a fortnight ago, Conway was re-elected to the Seanad for the fourth time. Born in 1974 with congenital cataracts, he was the third generation of his family to have the condition. At six months old, Martin was brought to London for surgery in which the cataracts were removed and he was left with just sixteen percent vision.
He graduated with a degree in Economics and Politics from UCD in 1998. Before graduating, Mr Conway was a founding member of the Association of Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD), a not-for-profit organisation that supports students with disabilities, making education accessible and helping to place graduates in employment.
In 2011, he became the first visually impaired member of the Oireachtas. Prior to this, he had been an elected member of Clare County Council since 2004.
