Clare Daly
Clare Daly | |
---|---|
Member of the European Parliament | |
Assumed office 2 July 2019 | |
Constituency | Dublin |
Teachta Dála | |
In office February 2016 – July 2019 | |
Constituency | Dublin Fingal |
In office February 2011 – February 2016 | |
Constituency | Dublin North |
Personal details | |
Born | Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland | 16 April 1968
Political party | |
Other political affiliations |
|
Spouse |
Michael Murphy (m. 1999) |
Alma mater | Dublin City University |
Website | claredaly |
Clare Daly (born 16 April 1968) is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Dublin constituency since July 2019. She is a member of Independents 4 Change, part of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL.
In the 1980s Daly was a member of the
Since 2012, Daly has had a close political association with
Early life
Daly is from
Early political career
Daly initially joined the
County councillor
Daly was elected as a Fingal County Councillor for the Swords area in the 1999 local elections. She was re-elected at the 2004 local elections and the 2009 local elections, topping the poll on each occasion.[14]
In 2003, Daly was jailed for a month, alongside 21 others from the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign for breaching a High Court order preventing protests leading to obstruction of the council's non-collection policy for those not paying bin charges.[15][16] in 2011, she announced that she would not register to pay a new household charge brought in as part of the latest austerity budget, calling it "reprehensible", and telling Phil Hogan, the minister responsible, in the Dáil: "You can't bring everyone to court".[17][18] She was an organiser of the Anti-Water charges campaign in Swords in 2014.[19]
She first ran for a seat in Dáil Éireann at the 1997 general election, receiving 7.2% on that occasion and 8.2% at the 1998 Dublin North by-election. At the 2002 general election she received 5,501 votes (12.5%), narrowly missing a seat. At the 2007 general election she received 9% of the vote.[14]
Teachta Dála
She was eventually elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 general election, taking 15.2% of the first preference vote.[14][20] During the presidential election campaign later that year, Daly and Higgins committed themselves to supporting the nomination of independent candidate David Norris in his search for the 20 Oireachtas members necessary for inclusion on the ballot paper.[21]
In February 2012, it was reported that she would introduce a bill to provide for limited access to abortion where there is "real and substantial risk to the life" of the pregnant woman, in line with the
In 2012, Daly used travel expenses to cover expenses related to her attendance at anti-household charge meetings around the country. Daly said that legal advice was being sought as there was a lack of clarity around the issue and that she would refund any money that was used inappropriately.[24][25][26][needs update]
In June of that same year, Daly refused to call for the resignation of her friend and political ally Mick Wallace in the wake of his VAT controversy.[27] It was reported by the Evening Herald that the United Left Alliance, of which the Socialist Party was part, were to confront her over this stance.[28] Daly resigned from the Socialist Party on 31 August 2012.[4] In a statement, the Socialist Party said "it believed Ms Daly had resigned because she placed more value on her political connection with Independent TD Mick Wallace than on the political positions and work of the Socialist Party."[29] Daly described the claim as "absolute nonsense" and said that she had not called for Wallace's resignation because the Socialist Party had not called for his resignation.[30] She requested a share of the €120,000 Socialist Party's Leaders Allowance to allow her to continue to fund her activities as an Independent TD.[31]
In April 2013, along with another TD, Joan Collins, she founded a new political party called United Left.[32]
Following the 39th G8 summit, Daly accused the Fine Gael–Labour government of "prostituting" the country to US President Barack Obama and criticised what she described as media and political "slobbering" over his wife Michelle and their children during their stay in Ireland. She also called Obama a hypocrite and a war criminal for speaking about peace whilst using drones to bomb foreign civilians and wanting to supply weapons to Syrian rebels. Taoiseach Enda Kenny responded to her comments, saying they were "disgraceful" and "beneath you" since President Obama had supported peace in Northern Ireland.[33] [34][35][36][37][38]
In November 2015, in the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks, Simon Coveney of Fine Gael accused Daly of attempting to shift blame for the attacks from the perpetrators and onto France itself and other European countries following comments by Daly. Coveney said: "The suggestion in this House that we should be looking at ourselves to blame for what happened on the streets of Paris is reprehensible. France has an obligation to defend itself.". Daly countered by criticising Coveney's willingness to send Irish Troops on to Mali as well as by stating "Reference has been made to France being better placed and France having a right to defend its citizens. "Precisely contradictory remarks were made when Russia engaged in the same reprehensible actions by bombing Syria in response to attacks on Russia. The West said Russia should not be doing that because it was endangering its citizens. That was correct for Russia but it is also correct for France".[39]
In December 2015, Daly along with independent TDs Mick Wallace and Maureen O'Sullivan each put forward offers of a €5,000 surety for a 23-year-old man being prosecuted under terrorism legislation in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, charged with membership of an illegal dissident republican terrorist organisation.[40]
At the 2016 general election, she stood as an Independents 4 Change candidate in the Dublin Fingal constituency, and was elected.[41]
Member of the European Parliament
At the 2019 European Parliament elections, she was elected for the Dublin constituency. She received a final total of 87,770 votes, or 11.6%, and took the third seat.[42]
Nepotism and bullying allegations
In December 2019, The Times reported that Daly had appointed her former husband, Michael Murphy, as a European Parliamentary Assistant. The rules in the European Parliament prohibit the employment of "spouses or stable non-marital partners". Daly previously employed the son of fellow Independents4Change MEP Mick Wallace. The Times described Daly as "one of the busiest Irish members in the European parliament this term".[43] In September 2020, a former parliamentary assistant of Daly, who had worked for her for over seven years and was her election agent in the 2016 general election, accused her of mistreatment and of having "no respect for workers' rights".[44]
Visit to Popular Mobilization Forces headquarters
In April 2021, Daly and Wallace were called "embarrassments to Ireland" by Fianna Fáil's Malcolm Byrne after the two MEPs travelled to Iraq and visited the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (called Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic), an Iraqi state-sponsored paramilitary umbrella organization within the Iraqi Armed Forces.[45]
Daly was interviewed on camera and praised the PMF's activities, saying it "upholds international law" unlike "the United States and many European countries". The interview was then used in a promotional video by the organization.[46] Byrne alleged that the PMF has "lured gay people to their deaths" and that Daly and Wallace allowed "themselves to be used as propaganda tools".[45]
After returning from Iraq, Daly said a priority for a number of Iraqi politicians was the departure of US military forces. She said that, since the Iraqi parliament voted in favour of an
Syrian chemical attack
At a European Parliament committee in April 2021, Daly and Wallace challenged the findings of a report by the
Venezuelan and Ecuadorian election monitoring
In June 2021, Daly and Wallace were among the MEPs censured by the European Parliament's Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group for acting as unofficial election monitors in the December 2020 Venezuelan parliamentary election and April 2021 Ecuadorian general election without a mandate or permission from the EU. Official European overseas trips have been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.[50] Daly and Wallace were barred until the end of 2021 from making any election missions. They were warned that any further such action may result in their ejection from the European Parliament until the end of their terms in 2024. While MEPs can make personal trips overseas, according to The Irish Times, Daly and Wallace made no mention in their tweets that they were acting in an unofficial capacity.[50]
Daly and Wallace issued a joint statement in response that read: "This is a political stunt by the centre right parties in the European Parliament, and we will be challenging it. These were not 'fake' election-observation trips. We made abundantly clear by public announcement at the time that we were not visiting Ecuador or Venezuela with an official election observation mandate." They continued: "Although we regret that the Ecuadorian people did not choose Andrés Arauz as their president, we found the elections to be conducted fairly and impartially, and their results are beyond question."[50] Ecuadorian election officials said that Daly could not be an objective election observer while openly supporting one side, such as Andrés Arauz, over the other.[51][verification needed]
Both Daly and Wallace refused to present vaccination certificates upon entering the European Parliament, resulting in them being reprimanded by the European Parliament.[52]
Views on Russia
Daly has consistently voted against resolutions that have been critical of Vladimir Putin's Russia.[53] She calls herself "an unapologetic opponent of the rampant Russophobia that prevails".[54] For her statements about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine added Daly to a list of public figures it regards as spreading Russian disinformation and propaganda. Daly responded by accusing Ukraine's government of a "smear campaign".[55]
According to The Irish Times, Wallace and Clare Daly's positions on Putin's Russia have caused tensions with other members of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL. Wallace and Daly tabled amendments on behalf of the Left, seeking to "water down" resolutions against Russia. They sought to remove a statement that a Dutch-led investigation found that Russia's military supplied the missile which downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 civilians.[47][51][verification needed]
Daly said that the Russian occupation of Crimea since 2014 "has the clear support of the majority of the population".[54] In January 2022, Daly described the Russian military buildup on Ukraine's border as being "clearly defensive" and said there is "no evidence that Russia has any desire to invade Ukraine, it would be of no benefit to them".[54] The following month, Daly was one of 52 MEPs who voted against providing €1.2 billion in loans to Ukraine, against 598 MEPs in favour.[56]
On 2 March 2022, she was one of 13 MEPs who voted against a resolution condemning the
In April 2022, Daly opposed
In October 2022, Daly abstained in a European Parliament vote on a measure that sought to end recognition of Russian travel documents issued in
In November 2022, Daly voted against a resolution to declare Russia a
Daly has denounced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a "vicious anti-immigrant racist" and asked why MEPs were so outraged at his arrest by Russia's security forces.[47]
Support for convicted and alleged Russian spies
In November 2021, Daly and Wallace travelled to Lithuania to support Algirdas Paleckis, a politician found guilty of spying for Russia's Federal Security Service in return for money.[5] She said the conviction was not based on evidence, and attended court when Paleckis' appeal was being heard. In May 2022, Paleckis's conviction for spying was upheld.[66]
While in Lithuania, Daly and Wallace protested together with
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Daly condemned
China
A report by The Irish Times in April 2022 described Daly and Wallace's media profile in China and discussed how, since January 2021, Daly had been featured in more Chinese-language news articles than any other Irish person, while Wallace had the second-most Chinese-language news articles.[5]
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
In April 2022, Daly and Wallace initiated defamation proceedings against RTÉ.[72][needs update]
Nicaragua
On 15 September 2022, she was one of 16 MEPs who voted against condemning President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua for human rights violations, in particular the arrest of Bishop Rolando Álvarez.[73][74]
References
- ^ "Clare Daly". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 7 November 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
- ^ a b c "Profile: Clare Daly TD". The Phoenix. 2 May 2019. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ Grant, Adrian (21 October 2021). "Column: Troubles over Mick Wallace follow a long line of left-wing splits". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
The fallout from technical group member Mick Wallace's tax affairs has seen Clare Daly resign from the Socialist Party
- ^ a b "Clare Daly resigns from the Socialist Party". RTÉ News. 1 September 2012. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f O'Leary, Naomi. "How Clare Daly and Mick Wallace became stars of authoritarian state media". The Irish Times. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
- ^ Byrne, Elaine (April 2022). "Elaine Byrne: How the people's champions became tools of the Kremlin propaganda machine". Business Post. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- ^ Grimes, David Robert (17 March 2022). "Putin's Willing Disinformation Agents". Byline Times. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- ^ Bielenberg, Kim (4 February 2022). "Mick Wallace and Clare Daly — the 'anti-imperialists' who defended Putin". Irish Independent.
- ^ Loughlin, Elaine (8 March 2022). "Wallace and Daly fail to reflect the wishes of the people they represent". Irish Examiner. Cork. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
- ^ Ní Chonghaile, Clár (13 April 2022). "Ireland's maverick MEP finds friends in all the wrong places". The New European.
- ^ from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
- RTE News. 12 March 1989. Retrieved 19 January 2024.. Irish Independent. 22 July 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
- Coulter, Oisín (6 February 2020). "The PBP/Solidarity explainer: from Campaigns to Revolution". Village. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
- "The Social lives of the Socialists"
Daly and Wallace were among 12 MEPs disciplined. Others included far-right politicians who attended votes in Kazakhstan and in the Russian-annexed territory of Crimea.
adding that the Western narrative had now openly changed to this being 'a proxy war against Russia'. ... The solution 'is actually demilitarisation', she said. But of course this was 'heresy,' because 'the Military-Industrial Complex are the ones fanning the flames of war. This is the product of the response of the EU and corporate capture by the arms industry'.
External links
- Quotations related to Clare Daly at Wikiquote
- Media related to Clare Daly at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- Personal profile of Clare Daly in the European Parliament's database of members