Bailey announced over the weekend that she will drop the claim.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey’s personal injuries claim against a Dublin hotel had caused the party “reputational harm”.
Bailey announced over the weekend that she had dropped the claim against the hotel, but speaking at the opening of the Curragh facilities on Sunday, Varadkar indicated that the case had caused some damage to the party, as reported by the Irish Times.
Bailey gave an interview to the Sunday Independent in which she confirmed that she will drop her claim against Dean Hotel, after she fell off a swing in the well-known Sophie’s Bar on the fifth floor.
Of the incident, which happened in July 2015, Bailey said: “I had nothing to hide. I had an accident, I was hurt and I had medical bills as a result of the accident.”
In the interview, Bailey, who represents the Dun Laoghaire constituency for Fine Gael, expressed her desire to “draw a line in the sand” with regards to the affair. She also said: “As far as I am concerned this matter is now closed.”
Speaking on the This Week programme on RTÉ Radio 1, Varadkar said that a number of members of the party had approached him over the matter.
“A lot of our candidates have said to me that it came up on the doors and did us some reputational damage. It’s hard to quantify that though,” he said.
Varadkar said the incident occurred before she became a TD and said: “It was a case that she took without any consultation with the Fine Gael party”.
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