Ryan still silent over WhatsApp group TD
THERE was an embarrassed silence from the Green Party’s leadership and Government ministers at a press conference yesterday when they were asked why a TD was not sanctioned for allowing two women to be called a ‘c***’ on a WhatsApp group.
The blushes of Eamon Ryan, Arts Minister Catherine Martin, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman and junior Agriculture Minister Pippa Hackett were only spared when a party apparatchik intervened with, ‘Any other questions?’ at the press conference in Athlone.
Last year the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed how the party’s Limerick TD, Brian Leddin, appeared to laugh as a colleague was called a ‘c***’ on WhatsApp.
Mr Leddin also failed to apologise to another women whose face was emblazoned with the same derogatory term on the messaging service.
But yesterday, as the Green Party’s hierarchy spoke about dignity and respect in the workplace, they attempted to sidestep questions about why no disciplinary action was taken against Mr Leddin.
When asked what message he thought it sends not to punish Mr Leddin in light of the Government’s new ‘no tolerance approach to gender violence’, leader Eamon Ryan said: ‘I don’t know the details. I might ask [deputy leader] Catherine [Martin] because she is obviously introducing legislation that can have real effect in protecting people from such online abuse.’
When he was reminded it was one of his own party members who was implicated in the controversy, Mr Ryan said: ‘I don’t want to go into the details of that case. If I’m right about the case you are talking about, as I have said, we answered that at the time. There are complex legal issues as I understand.’
When Mr Ryan was informed there were no longer any legal issues because the statute of limitations – the deadline within which legal action must be taken – had expired, he replied: ‘We are making a stand, so one of the ways we are doing it is the online safety legislation that Catherine is introducing by providing exactly the sort of protections that people want and are needed.’
Minutes later, while speaking about her dismay at how Twitter employees were summarily made redundant by new owner Elon Musk, Mr Ryan’s deputy said: ‘What is of concern, obviously, is the lack of basic decency and respect that employees are being treated with in the company and the Government will be there if people are made redundant to give support. It’s a basic dignity and respect issue.’
But when asked if dignity and respect applied to Mr Leddin and the women who were abused on the WhatsApp group of which he was a member, Ms Martin replied: ‘Well, as I said at the time, it was our legal advice that it was a legal issue that we should not comment on.’
After being informed there was no longer any legal reason why she could not comment, Ms Martin said ‘that is my current advice’.