Social media accounts belonging to Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley have been deleted following this week’s controversy over two of his tweets.

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has come in for criticism this week over a Tweet he sent referencing Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar’s sexuality and another linking the War of Independence with a Provisional IRA attack during the Troubles.

This evening, his Twitter and Facebook accounts were both deleted.

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said it was Deputy Stanley’s personal decision to remove the accounts.

Varadkar Tweet

Deputy Stanley this afternoon insisted he does not owe any apology to the LGBT community over a tweet he sent in 2017 referencing Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar’s sexuality.

The Tweet read: “Yippee 4 d tory. it’s Leo. U can do what u like in bed but don’t look 4 a pay rise the next morning.”

Speaking at the launch of a PAC report this morning, Deputy Stanley said he has “campaigned in every campaign for gay rights” over the years.

“My record with the LGBT community stands for itself,”

“I have relatives who are gay, I have friends and neighbours who are gay and lesbian and I do not have to apologise to anybody.”

He said he was celebrating advances in gay rights while warning that there was much work to be done in terms of worker’s rights.

“Insensitive”

Yesterday meanwhile, Deputy Stanley apologised for the “insensitive nature” of a Tweet he sent regarding attacks carried out by the IRA during the War of Independence and by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles.

He claimed the 1920 Kilmichael Ambush in County Cork and the 1979 Warrenpoint Ambush in County Down were “two IRA operations that taught the elite of the British Army and establishment the cost of occupying Ireland.”