Councillor quits Fine Gael amid ‘harassment’ claims

A COUNCILLOR has quit Fine Gael amid claims that other party members attempted to “silence, harass and undermine” her.

Kildare councillor Fiona McLoughlin Healy took to social media to announce her resignation from Fine Gael after a long-running dispute. She said she intends to continue her work as an Independent councillor.

The row between Ms McLoughlin Healy and Fine Gael dates back almost two years. She ran as a candidate in the 2016 general election in Kildare South but failed to get elected.

Martin Heydon, now chairman of the parliamentary party, won Fine Gael’s only seat in the constituency.

The following May, Ms McLoughlin Healy has claimed, her colleagues actively tried to prevent her from doing her job on Kildare County Council.

She placed a motion of no confidence in the then mayor, Fine Gael councillor Brendan Weld, which was defeated by 30 votes to her one. The row was probed by Fine Gael and she lost the party whip later that year.

In recent days, she took to Facebook to announce her resignation from the party, making a number of allegations about how she was treated.

She said the party failed to address “in any meaningful way” a formal complaint she made about “persistent attempts by Fine Gael party members to silence, harass and undermine me”.

Ms McLoughlin Healy claimed that Fine Gael councillors attempted to block her nomination to the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board.

She alleged that senior party figures including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar were aware of what she described as “the grinding harassment and isolation” she experienced as a Fine Gael councillor and claimed they “failed to address it”. She said her complaint gave the party “every opportunity to address the old boys’ club-culture in Fine Gael as I had experienced it”.

Last night Cllr Weld said party headquarters is dealing with the issue but added that he rejects Ms Loughlin Healy’s allegations. Mr Heydon declined to comment.

A Fine Gael statement said: “In 2016, Fine Gael’s disciplinary committee fully investigated an internal issue in a timely manner and decided to remove the party whip from Cllr McLoughlin Healy for six months. The party’s executive council subsequently considered an appeal [by Ms McLoughlin Healy] but rejected it”. The statement thanked Ms McLoughlin Healy for her work and wished her well in the future.

In recent weeks, Fine Gael probed a separate row after Senator Catherine Noone accused a colleague of treating her in a misogynistic way. Ms Noone told party colleagues last Wednesday that the issue “has been dealt with” and she wants to get on with her work.