A “meeting” of the national directorate of the right-wing National Party to remove Justin Barrett as party leader was attended by only one person, the party’s deputy leader James Reynolds, the Electoral Commission has disclosed in a ruling on a dispute between both men over the party’s official registration.
It has also emerged that Mr Reynolds only informed Mr Barrett of the “meeting” when he sent an email close to midnight on the previous day, and, in a follow-up email, the following morning, brought the time of that day’s meeting forward from 7pm to 2pm.
Mr Barrett alleged the email was sent to an address that he seldom used and he never received the email.
Mr Reynolds and Mr Barrett were the only two members of the national directorate of the party which has promulgated strong anti-immigrant and right-wing policies.
Following a serious rift between both men, which came to a head in July 2023, each purported to expel the other from the party. Subsequently, both separately applied to the Electoral Commission to have the name of the other person removed as an authorised person in the Register of Policy Parties.
Both applications were refused in the first instance by Art O’Leary, the chief executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission). He left the register unaltered with both Mr Barret and Mr Reynolds as the authorised people.
Mr Reynolds subsequently assumed the role of leader of the National Party, which contested the local and European elections. Mr Barrett formed a new right-wing party, Clann Éireann.
In a ruling published on Thursday, the Electoral Commission, chaired by Ms Justice Marie Baker, dismissed an appeal taken by Mr Reynolds against the decision not to remove Mr Barret’s name as an authorised person associated with the National Party.
In her written ruling, Ms Justice Baker notes that there were a considerable number of conflicts between both men in relation to evidence and interpretation of the party’s constitution.
The party’s national directorate required “at least 50 per cent”, or “50 per cent or more” of its members needed to be present for a meeting to have a quorum. However, as there were only two members on the directorate Mr Reynolds relied on the “50 per cent or more” clause to claim the meeting was quorate.
Mr Reynolds gave notice by e-mailing Mr Barrett at 11.23pm on July 13th, 2023, inviting him to the meeting of the directorate at a designated location at 7pm the following day. He sent a further email at 9.53am the following morning bringing the meeting forward to 2pm that day.
Mr Reynolds was the only person in attendance at the meeting which removed Mr Barrett from the national directorate. The notice did not contain any detail of the meeting’s agenda nor of any formal motions to remove Mr Barrett.
The commission accepted that arrangements within the party were informal and said that in some instances a short notice of a meeting could be considered reasonable.
However, it ruled that in this case the matters to be considered – including Mr Barrett’s removal as president and as an officer of the party were of the “highest significance”. So were the proposed changes to the party’s constitution and the removal of Mr Barrett’s name from the party’s register, as well as the change of address.
The notice given to Mr Barrett was unreasonable, the commission found.
“No evidence is proferred by Mr Reynolds that he did, or attempted to, satisfy himself that Mr Barrett was aware of the altered earlier time.”
The commission took the view that the decisions made at the July 14th meeting were invalid and Mr Barrett had not been validly removed as officer and party president.
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