Protesters gathered outside Green Party headquarters in Dublin on Friday to protest against the party’s response to comments made in a WhatsApp group by TD Brian Leddin.
A small crowd gathered outside the party’s Suffolk Street offices to condemn Mr Leddin’s comments and to demand sanctions against the Limerick TD.
It was reported this week that Mr Leddin had apologised for some comments he made in a WhatsApp group that had been set up in 2017.
Mr Leddin, who chairs the Oireachtas Environment and Climate Action Committee, acknowledged that some of the language in the WhatsApp group had been “inappropriate” and said that he had apologised to a female councillor for a comment he had made about her.
Mr Leddin also said that he had since left the WhatsApp group.
Earlier this week, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said that it was “correct” that Mr Leddin had apologised.
The party has not yet confirmed whether Mr Leddin will be sanctioned for his comments.
Protesters handed in a letter to the party’s offices addressed to Mr Ryan.
The letter said: “Deputy Leddin has shown himself not fit to be a TD. We also reminded you that he is chair of a Dail committee, a paid and prestigious position that the Green Party executive and you as leader have implicitly illustrated you are happy for him to continue to hold.
“How low can Green Party TDs go before they are sanctioned?”
Protesters also objected to comments by Mr Leddin reported in the Limerick Leader newspaper this week in which he rejected calls that he should resign.
“I made one comment which can be considered derogatory. It was about somebody I had a personal relationship with.
“My thinking wasn’t divorced from the fact I had a personal relationship with that person which ended quite badly.
“I’ve apologised to Ms O’Donovan. I don’t believe that what I’ve done should require me to stand down from politics,” Mr Leddin said.
Former TD Ruth Coppinger attended the protest. She said that she wanted to know why the Green Party was still happy to have Mr Leddin in their party ranks.
“A stand has to be taken against so-called casual misogyny,” she told the PA news agency.
“Brian Leddin’s defence is that he actually didn’t say some of the worst things.
“But he stayed silent. He stayed a member of the WhatsApp Group. If you’re a public representative you should take a stand, condemn the action and leave the group.
“He’s not fit to be a TD for the Green Party, who claims to be progressive.
“We would expel someone from our party for engaging in that sort of behaviour.
“They have actually taken no action whatsoever, except a half-hearted apology.”
Harper Cleves, an activist with the Rosa Socialist Feminist Movement group, was one of the organisers of the protest.
“This is the kind of language and rapport accepted in the Green Party.
“If it were up to me, I don’t think someone who has these kinds of values should be an elected representative for a party that tells people that they have progressive values on the issue of gender equality.
“If I were a Green Party leader, I’d say you have to step down from office.”
PA has contacted the Green Party for comment.
