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Will Gilmore ask Kathleen Lynch to resign.
Read more about: Labour Party 
From the Irish TImes.
“Having heard an interview with one of the victims in the case, who was clearly distressed by my letter and having considered the matter and discussed it with colleagues, I now accept that it was inappropriate for a TD to have become involved in any way in a case of such seriousness.
So she accepts that is is inappropriate. Isn’t that great. But that is only words. Words mean nothing at all. Where are the standards in office? If this was from another party she would be calling for them to resign. As Damien Mulley pointed out look what happened to Bobby Molloy in a similar situation. He made a statement at the time.
Mr Molloy admitted he “got it wrong” and had made “a wrong judgment” in asking a secretary in his department to call a judge’s secretary in the first place.
Not exactly much different then Kathleen Lynchs statement.
Labour’s leader at the time Ruari Quinn called for Molloy to resign and in the end Molloy resigned. Does Eamon Gilmore holds his party to the same standards as he held others. Still no calls from the party leadership.
Unwise though it was, there is a huge difference between writing a reference letter regarding the accused’s parents, and making a phone call to a judge’s office. The former is an open and transparent action. The latter is a sneaky and underhand attempt at secret influence.
Eh, Molloy resigned as a Minister, not as a TD.
Plus, Lynch didn’t write to the Judge. She wrote a letter which was shown to the Judge (but not addressed to him). Slight, but important, difference.
Oh, but I accept she was mad to write the letter in the first place. No question.
The Molloy case was the first thing I thought of when I read this. She’s a fucking disgrace, she must have known it was for the parents of a suspected rapist. As an aside, what matter is the standing of a rapist’s parents in a case like this?
Kathleen, you’re unfit to hold public office and you should quit.
If he doesn’t at least suspend her from the parliamentary party then Gilmore’s credibility is shot to hell. Next time he stands up calling on the government to live up to high standards no one will take him seriously if she is still sitting behind him writing letters.
Only the electorate can fire her as a TD but Labour have to expel her from the party.
true but he said he would not stand in the next election in an election year. Something Lynch is not planning.
So should she resign. Is this acceptable?
@GreenInk The letter was written after he was convicted of the rape of two children.
@keith The slight difference doesn’t matter one bit. The letter was asked for in order to do one thing and that was to get some kind of leniency for a guy that raped a 14 year old and a 17 year old and is in Court next for the sexual asasult of a 13 year old. If she handed it to the judge herself or not she was still doing something in order to influence a judge.
Simon, Molloy wasn’t intending to stand anyway in 2002 but was pressurised into it by the party and then when this broke he took the option that he had half wanted anyway.
This all goes back to the problem that people are elected for reasons that have nothing to do with the jobs they are supposed to do. The skills to get the job aren’t the skills to do the job.
There’s a telling silence of other TDs calling for her resignation. They know where making this a resigning matter would lead.
the times have an editorial about it
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0422/1208469018181.html
@P O’Neill Indeed. Among the 220,000 letters of representation to emanate from the office of Tony Killeen we see an appeal for the early release of a convicted murderer and one for the early release of a convicted child rapist.
Representations don’t seem to have done his career much harm so far.