Maria Bailey seeks to 'correct' the record in letter to constituents

Ms Bailey was removed from the Fine Gael election team last week following months of controversy over her injury claim against a Dublin hotel for falling off a swing.

She was initially demoted in Leinster House after an internal party investigation and also withdrew the injury claim.

The matter came to a head last week when Fine Gael's national executive discussed her position. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also told her by letter that she had been deselected. She was replaced on the ticket by newly elected councillor Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill.

This followed a recent constituency meeting at which members, while not naming Ms Bailey, called for an “urgent” review of the election plan.

But it has emerged that Ms Bailey wrote to party members in Dun Laoghaire questioning how she was removed from the three-person election team.

In the letter, she questioned why the original constituency review motion was not before last week's national executive meeting. She wrote that she had been told this by Fine Gael's director of organisation for elections, Minister Paschal Donohoe, and party general secretary Tom Curran, the day before she was dropped last week.

“Paschal also told us at that meeting that all of “our” approach was driven by the Constituency motion passed “asking and requiring” that the executive council review the ticket and asking the executive council if changes needed to be made,” she wrote.

Ms Bailey has raised questions about why a letter to her from the Taoiseach trumped the executive meeting and any consideration of the motion.

“At about 5pm, on November 14, the evening of the Executive Council’s meeting, I received a copy of the letter from An Taoiseach to the chair of the Executive Council stating that as party leader and under the provisions of Rule 44A (v) of the Fine Gael Constitution and Rules, he was proposing that the Executive Council delete me as a candidate for the next General Election in the Constituency of Dun Laoghaire,” the letter says.

“He continued: ‘I make this proposal because in my judgement, the best interests of the party are served by deleting Maria Bailey TD as a candidate for the next general election’. There were no reasons given for this judgement.

"At no time before I attended the Executive Council was I told by either Paschal Donohoe or Tom Curran that the basis of my deselection had been changed from the constituency motion to solely that of the Taoiseach’s proposal.

I am not aware whether the review requested by the constituency was in fact carried out by the Executive Council. If such a review was conducted, I was not advised of any conclusions or the reasons for any such conclusions.

“I was not afforded any opportunity to address the Executive Council on the conclusions of any such review by them. As stated, the Executive Council told me that the only matter before them was the proposal from the Taoiseach, so I must conclude that no review was carried out by them.

“I appreciate that this has been a difficult time for you also, but it is very important to me that the record be corrected and that this be communicated to all members.”