Explained: Fourth issue that landed on Sinn Féin's plate

The Brian Stanley issue is the fourth one that has landed on the plate of the Sinn Féin leadership in a very short period and its handling of them has raised questions about the party's internal systems and procedures.

The Laois-Offaly TD is the most high-profile figure caught up in what looks like a mounting crisis.

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee was prominent during the RTÉ payments fiasco and regularly called on to articulate the Sinn Féin position.

He will now be removed from that role which sits with the party rather than the individual.

With little detail on the nature of the allegation and a counter claim, it is hard to gauge the extent of any damage it may cause.

However, Mr Stanley's characterisation of the party's disciplinary process as a "kangaroo court" clearly stung his former friends with its connotations of darker days and summary paramilitary justice.

Mary Lou McDonald told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that Mr Stanley had been represented by a barrister and a solicitor throughout proceedings and that the party rules had been applied fairly and "without fear or favour".

The fact that the whole affair has now been handed over to gardaí may well limit what can be said about it during Dáil debates tomorrow.

Mr Stanley's resignation from the party followed an entirely unrelated story in the weekend papers about a different Sinn Féin member.

Read more: McDonald 'not in a position' to comment on Stanley allegation

The Irish Independent reported that a party member had been referred to the PSNI after an "inappropriate" text message was sent to a 17-year-old who was also a member of Sinn Féin.

It was reported as being personal in nature but not sexually explicit.

The party said when it got the complaint in September 2023 it followed its child protection policy, suspended the person who sent the message and referred them to the PSNI and the social services.

Sinn Féin said the PSNI told it later the same month that it was not carrying out an investigation.

The individual later resigned from the party.

All of this comes on top of the resignation of two Sinn Féin press officers who supplied job references to a one-time colleague, who at the time was under investigation for child sex offences.

Neither reference mentioned Michael McMonagle's suspension from the party or the police investigation and he was able to use them to secure another job with the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Serious questions were raised when pictures emerged of the party's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill attending the same charity event as Mr McMonagle who was there in his new role.

She was repeatedly asked why she had not told the BHF what she knew about him, though they were photographed just metres apart at that event Ms O'Neill insisted she had not seen Mr McMonagle, whom she had once personally employed.

He has since admitted his guilt and is awaiting sentencing for sexual communication with a child.

One of the two Sinn Féin press officers who resigned over the McMonagle matter was a senior strategist, the head of its Stormont press operation.

Seán Mag Uidhir would have been key to the party's handling of the whole debacle if he had not been the cause of it himself.

The party's problems were compounded when it emerged that a senior official in the party's HR department had been contacted about the references a year before the leadership found out about them.

The information had never been passed on, something Sinn Féin said had been a "serious omission".

In light of all that, the resignation of Kildare South TD Patricia Ryan last week may be the least of the party's worries.

She stepped down ahead of the Sinn Féin selection convention for the constituency.

She blamed "difficulties" with the party locally and it was suggested that she was likely to face competition in the selection process.

National difficulties have now been piled on top of those local ones in what is a very challenging period for Sinn Féin.