Complaint against Pat Rabbitte rejected

sligo | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday November 24, 2005 20:16 by Dave

Speculation is mounting on the future of former Sligo-Leitrim Labour TD Declan Bree after a complaint he made against party leader Pat Rabbitte was rejected by an internal disciplinary committee.

The Sligo Labour councillor had accused Mr Rabbitte of breaching Article 14 of the party constitution last month. He said Mr Rabbitte had brought the party into disrepute by writing a letter to the Irish Times claiming Mr Bree had used his influence as mayor of Sligo to block a Travellers’ accommodation unit being put in his ward.
Mr Bree described the remarks as false and scurrilous. Party secretary Mike Allen accepted Mr Bree’s complaint as warranting a hearing, instructing a five-person complaints committee to convene appointed by the party’s national executive.
The committee found that Mr Bree’s complaint “came nothing near the standard” of proving a breach in the party’s constitution. It said a future meeting to further consider the complaint would not be held as no purpose would be served by doing so.
Councillor Bree was scathing in his response, calling the decision “appalling”. He told Daily Ireland yesterday it had created “a worrying precedent” of a leader attempting to smear and vilify a party colleague and getting away with it.
He said the development “did not bode well for the future of the party, raising serious questions about openness and accountability”.
“In the Labour party I belong to, an injury for one is an injury to all. Here we had a case of a party member writing to the Irish Times, making scurrilous and unfounded allegations against a party colleague and the disgraceful response from the party establishment is to reject the complaint. It’s deeply disappointing that the party of Connolly and Larkin would tolerate such a situation,” he said.
The councillor pointed out that he had a complaint made against him upheld last month for refusing to apologise for criticising fellow Labour councillors Jim McGarry and Veronica Cawley after they voted against Sligo’s Traveller accommodation programme in June.
Mr Bree also said there now seemed to be one rule for ordinary party members and one for the leader.
“How can we as a party preach to others about justice, fair play and solidarity when those principles can be ignored by our own party establishment?” he said.
There was concern by Mr Bree’s supporters that Labour member and trade unionist John O’Brien had sat on the panel that upheld a complaint against Mr Bree last month and the panel that dismissed his complaint against Mr Rabbitte.
Labour Party secretary Mike Allen said yesterday that the five panel members had been selected “randomly”. He said advice had been that there was “no legal bar” to Mr O’Brien being selected on both panels. Mr Allen said he hoped Mr Bree would now accept the decision made by the panel.
However, the development is likely to have significant consequences for the Labour Party in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency.