Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, who only narrowly lost out on a Dail seat for Sinn Fein in Galway West and South Mayo, his statement reads…

I, with a sizeable number of other dissatisfied members have sought to deal with all these issues through the appropriate channels – locally, regionally and nationally. We have taken them as high as the Ard Chomhairle and the Office of the President and now have no other internal avenue to have them addressed within the party.

Discussions around this have continued up to this morning, but the party’s insistence even today to support wrongdoers, to ignore misconduct and to plough ahead with a selection convention, which in my view has a pre-determined outcome, before serious disciplinary issues are properly dealt with, is the last straw.

I hope that Sinn Féin leadership will seriously reflect on my decision and bring in the necessary reform to deal appropriately with such nasty behaviour from now on in a much more decisive manner, which will protect members trying to do the right thing who are being subjected to wholly inappropriate behaviour of any kind.