Leo Varadkar said it was “a very difficult time” for Maria Bailey after she was deselected as a Fine Gael General Election
candidate.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the party Executive Council on Thursday evening following a recommendation from the Taoiseach, who is party president.
Ms Bailey took a compensation case against a Dublin hotel after she fell from a swing while holding a bottle of beer.
An internal review found that she “overstated” the extent of her injuries.
Court documents lodged as part of Ms Bailey’s case stated that she could not run for three months after her fall but she took part in a 10k race three weeks after the incident.
In an RTE radio interview in May, she said the swing had not been properly supervised at the time of her fall.
Ms Bailey has since withdrawn proceedings she filed against the Dean Hotel and was removed as chairwoman of the Oireachtas Housing Committee. Speaking at the British-Irish Council event in Dublin on Friday, Mr Varadkar said: “It is never a nice thing to be deselected and I can understand how she must be feeling.”
He added when he became leader, he wanted to ensure the views of members were listened to and this meant heeding the views in Ms Bailey’s constituency who voted to review the ticket she is on.
Mr Varadkar said: “We have a clause in our constitution that allows members to decide issues such as this.” He added he could not predict if Ms Bailey would take any legal action regarding the
decision to deselect her but he is confident the party had followed the correct procedure.
The Taoiseach said: “It is very much a matter for Deputy Bailey regarding her further response to what happened last night.”
The executive council added Councillor Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to the ticket in Ms Bailey’s place.
In a statement on Twitter, Ms Bailey said she feels she has been sanctioned twice, adding: “I had hoped to be able to move on and work to rebuild my reputation.”
Fine Gael members in Dun Laoghaire carried a motion asking party HQ to review the General Election ticket in Ms Bailey’s constituency.
That meeting heard the party had taken a knock in the polls following the storm.
