Ex-Clare TD Violet Anne Wynne paying off €6,500 debt ‘with whatever little income’ she has
Gordon Deean
Former independent Clare TD, Violet Anne Wynne told a court today she has been paying off a residual debt of €6,500 to an ex-employee “with whatever little income that I had to hand”.
At Ennis District Court on Friday, mother of six, Ms Wynne told Judge Alec Gabbett: “It is not a case I was making payments whenever I felt like it. I was doing so with whatever little income that I had to hand.”
Ms Wynne told Judge Gabbett that now that she receives a weekly payment herself where she can pay the €50 per week owed to Fiona Smyth.
Asked what weekly payment she now receives, Ms Wynne said that it is €565 per week.
In court in July, Judge Gabbett directed that Ms Wynne pay €50 per week to Ms Smyth to pay off a residual €6,500 debt to her former constituency office worker from a €11,500 Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) award made against Ms Wynne.
In court today, solicitor for Ms Smyth, Daragh Hassett, said that since Jul,y Ms Wynne has paid out €300 up to September 11th but not all the payments were in line with the court order of €50 each week.
Mr Hassett said there were two payments made two weeks apar,t which was not in line with the instalment order made by Judge Gabbett on July 11th.
Mr Hassett said that Ms Wynne must make the payments “not when it suits her and not fortnightly”.
Mr Hassett said that Ms Smyth “is relatively happy with the amount” paid to date by Ms Wynne.
He said: “She has been put through various legal processes by Ms Wynne, and she wants this matter to be put to an end and she is happy with the matter to go back to January to monitor payments.”
Mr Hassett said that he had concerns about the statement of means previously provided to the court by Ms Wynne.
Mr Hassett said that the Oireachtas has confirmed to him that the termination payment that would have been available to Ms Wynne on losing her seat would have been €18,946.50.
Mr Hassett said that he didn’t recall that figure featuring in Ms Wynne’s statement of means “and I have concerns about that”.
He said: “The €18,946 payment was received long before Ms Wynne took the stand in July and gave evidence to the court."
Judge Gabbett said: “What are you are saying is that Ms Wynne has not been as forthcoming as she should be.”
In reply, Mr Hassett said: “Surely as a member of the Dáil previously, she should have been able to provide that figure and despite numerous attempts by me to get it out of her and we got that figure from the Oireachtas.”
In court today, Ms Wynne confirmed that she did receive the €18,946 termination payment and paid out €5,000 of that to Ms Smyth earlier this year.
Asked by Judge Gabbett did she had disclosed the €18,846 payment previously, Ms Wynne said: “I gave it to the court office during the week.”
Asked by Judge Gabbett what happened to the remaining €13,000 or so, Ms Wynne said: "This was the only income I had from the time the general election was called last November until a tax back payment I have received.”
Ms Wynne said that a further payment of €50 was made yesterday.
Judge Gabbett told Ms Wynne: “I assessed a weekly payment of €50 and this has to happen weekly. I will adjourn it to January 9th for monitoring but I expect the €50 to be paid weekly.”
In response, Ms Wynne said: “I understand.”
In August 2024, the WRC ordered Ms Wynne to pay the €11,500 after finding that Ms Smyth was unfairly dismissed by Ms Wynne.
Ms Wynne - who received a TD’s annual salary of €113,679 - lost her seat in the November General Election in Clare receiving only 310 first preference votes, where she stood as an independent candidate in a vote collapse from her 2020 General Election vote when she topped the poll as a Sinn Féin candidate.
Mr Hassett said that it is his hope that the matter can be struck out in January.
