Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has stopped short of suspending Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey or removing her as a general election candidate over the now infamous swing case - claiming she has already suffered "negative criticism" from the public.
In a long-awaited and detailed statement on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Varadkar said despite an independent inquiry conducted on behalf of Fine Gael finding a series of concerns about her actions Ms Bailey should remain in the party.
Mr Varadkar has confirmed Ms Bailey will now be "demoted" from the Oireachtas housing committee chair position she currently holds, and which comes with a €9,500 extra income.
However, the Taoiseach said he is taking no further action.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Varadkar said:
- while Ms Bailey's claim "was not fraudulent" she "overstated the impact of her injuries" in an affidavit and had been told she faced "contributory negligence" for what happened
- provided "inconsistencies to me and the media" both before and after the case became public knowledge "which I cannot reconcile"
- made "numerous errors of judgement" in relation to her handling of the case which "jar" with what he says his party stands for on compensation culture issues
- and that while Ms Bailey will be demoted from her Oireachtas committee chair role, she will not be removed or suspended from the party
Mr Varadkar's statement, which can be read in full below, also said Fine Gael TD and Culture Minister Josepha Madigan initially advised Ms Bailey on her case against the Dean Hotel in Dublin city centre while a backbench TD in 2015.
However, she subsequently passed the case onto a colleague in her solicitor's firm, and as such - the Taoiseach said - has nothing to answer for.
Ms Bailey has insisted she "made no attempt to mislead" over the scale of her injuries despite accepting the Taoiseach's decision to demote her over the case.
In a statement through the Fine Gael press office on Tuesday evening, Ms Bailey - who has been silent on what happened since her appearance
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Ms Bailey said she suffered "painful injuries" when she fell off a swing at the Dean Hotel in Dublin city centre in 2015 and noted that the still unpublished independent report commissioned by Fine Gael found it was "not a fraudulent claim".
However, despite saying "I made no attempt to mislead", she admitted "I regret very much that I took the case" and accepted the Taoiseach's decision to demote her from her previous Oireachtas housing committee chair role.