*Clare TD, Violet-Anne Wynne (IND).
CLARE TD, Violet-Anne Wynne (IND) has said there has been “a storm in a teacup” over meetings she held with the leader of the Labour Party.
The Irish Independent this week reported that the Labour Party were trying to recruit Deputy Wynne to its ranks to try increase its amount of female TDs and its presence in rural Ireland.
Ivana Bacik (LAB) has held meetings with Deputy Wynne in recent months but “no such conversations have taken place” regarding joining the party according to the Clare TD.
Fellow Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND) told The Clare Echo he has also had “informal approaches” from the Labour Party.
Deputy Wynne said, “It seems a bit of a storm in a teacup has been brought about from meetings I’ve had with Ivana, they’ve been held in the visitors bar, they weren’t in secret, there was no cloak and dagger about any of our discussions. Ivana has been super supportive of myself”.
Chair of Clare’s Labour branch, Denis Vaughan told The Clare Echo they have not been advised of any requests for Deputy Wynne to join the party and that no request has been made by the Clare TD to become a member of their local branch.
Advice was provided by the Labour leader on the childcare services within Leinster House while the Kilrush woman was heavily pregnant prior to the arrival of her sixth child, Collins. The pair have held meetings on “legislative processes” and trying to make the Oireachtas “more family friendly”.
Elected in February 2020 as a Sinn Féin candidate, Violet-Anne left the party two years later after she said she was a victim of a campaign of “psychological warfare”.
In her one year as an Independent in the Dáil, Deputy Wynne has spoken of enjoying the freedom associated with not being under a party banner. “When I made that the decision the only future I saw for myself in politics was sticking as an Independent, from the experience I had I had no interest in party politics any longer and also from the experience the levels of toxicity that can be at play, that was my experience, I had all full intentions for being an Independent for the duration of my political career and that is still the same at this point in time. Yes, I’ve met with Ivana, I’m heavily impressed with Ivana, her compassion, her support and her willingness to be approachable and have those conversations that are needed, she has been a great ally to me so far”.
“Labour would definitely have not been a party I would have considered when I entered politics in the first place, it was back in 2012 which was off the back of austerity measures, my family in particular were impacted by austerity measures, back then the Labour Party were being led differently, I think there is a good bit of work to be done there in regaining people’s trusts. The likes of Niamh Breathnach who passed away recently brought forward excellent reforms that removed barriers to education, so much so that if it wasn’t for the abolition of third level tuition fees I would never have been able to attend university and may not be here today in this position. It does seem like they lost their way in recent years, they were a party to support the working people on the ground and brought in many excellent reforms, I can only hope that with Ivana as leader that they can regain the public trust”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Deputy McNamara who served as a Labour TD from 2011 to 2016 before losing his seat revealed that he has also been approached on the possibility of rejoining the party but has rejected such offers. “I’m quite happy with where I am now, I’ve many friends in the Labour party and across Clare, decent people with a strong sense of civic responsibility, I equally have friends in the parliamentary Labour party but I was elected as an Independent and I remained in Labour throughout my time until 2016 because I was elected on a Labour ticket and I had a mandate on that basis just like I had a mandate now as an Independent, I don’t intend to change that”.
On the link of Deputy Wynne to his former party, McNamara commented, “I don’t know Violet-Anne terribly well, most of our conversations revolve around the difficulties of juggling politics with having young children. I have a son who is give or take the same age as Violet-Anne’s youngest daughter, I appreciate it is very difficult. I wish them, whichever road they go down the best of luck with it”.
