Wicklow TD Stephen Donnelly, who last week joined Fianna Fáil, says he has been “eviscerated by an online horde” since announcing his decision.
Mr Donnelly, who ran in last year’s election for the Social Democrats before leaving the party and serving as an Independent TD for a period, told Newtalk’s Pat Kenny Show there had been “no carrots involved”’ in his move to Fianna Fáil. He has been appointed to the party’s front bench as its Brexit spokesman.
“Being Independent was always a very strange place for me,” he said during a discussion with former Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte and Fine Gael deputy Kate O’Connell about the play The Successful TD, an adaptation of John B Keane’s book of the same title.
“I had done everything I could as an Independent. I had gotten to the end of the line,” he said. “This country has been very well served by many Independent TDs. There are strong Independents doing great work. But for me I had gone as far as I could. I wanted to join a team.”
When asked if he stood over his previous criticisms of Fianna Fáil, Mr Donnelly said that he did.
He previously called the party “the stale cabal of Irish civil war politics” and said “take a look at Fianna Fáil policies for the past 15 years and tell me you don’t see serious incompetence”.
Speaking on Tuesday, he said: “Those comments that were quoted by Mary Wilson were actually made by a Fine Gael person and I was quoting them.
“I don’t take responsibility for what happened in 2004 - 2005.”
Mr Donnelly last week said a number of people had advised him to join a party and that signing up for Fianna Fáil was an easy decision in the end.
He said: “The majority of them said, ‘Fianna Fáil - it’s the clearest political fit with you’.”
