Young Fine Gael

In October 2015, president Padraig O'Sullivan resigned from his position “due to work and personal commitments”. It later transpired that his sudden departure was prompted by other members of the National Executive. An informed source, who declined to be named, told The Journal website that a petition, signed by the majority of executive council members, was hand-delivered to O’Sullivan’s home. The petition demanded that O’Sullivan either resign or he would be forced out. Interim president Colm Taylor, who was elected YFG vice president in March of that year, insisted it was an internal party matter, stating; "The situation is that Padraig did resign. It is an internal party matter. The executive of YFG are meeting on Tuesday to discuss matters arising from it. I won’t comment any further." ^{[citation needed]}

In February 2016, a YFG member posted a meme of Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald, making fun of the fact she referred to 'Booby Sands' on a leaflet, online. McDonald described it as an example of "everyday sexism", "tasteless" and "bordering on smutty".^[10] Also in 2016, a YFG member replied to a tweet by Sinn Féin councillor Sarah Holland, using the official YFG Twitter account. The reply contained the line 'where's that child I killed?', a reference to the IRA. YFG later apologised for the incident, stating that the tweet had been sent by an individual within the organisation using the YFG account.^[11]

In 2018, following the election of YFG president Killian Foley-Walsh, The Journal wrote about a tweet sent by Mr Foley-Walsh in 2015 which argued against the use of abortion pills with reference to "coat hangers," which he later described as "an atrocious comment".^[12] This was followed by a profile piece in Phoenix Magazine describing Mr Foley-Walsh as "The baby-faced Blueshirt."^[13] In August 2019, there were calls for Foley-Walsh to resign when he and another member of the National Executive, Chloe Kennedy attended the Young America Foundation's annual conference at which many prominent Republicans including the then VP Mike Pence and Ted Cruz spoke.^[14] Foley-Walsh also come under fire for his views expressed before being elected — including his apparent victim-blaming of those murdered by right-wing terrorist Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Oslo and Utoya in 2011.^[15] Neither individual resigned their post arguing it had been a regular event for members of the National Executive to attend.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2021, the Kilkenny branch of YFG publicly called for the resignation of Tánaiste and party leader, Leo Varadkar, due to an ongoing Garda investigation into his leak of a confidential pay agreement document to his friend, a leader of a rival representative group to that involved in the negotiations; and low poll numbers under his leadership. The branch announced the following day that it had been "terminated" and its committee vacated by central Young Fine Gael.^[16] The controversy was described as "the straw that broke the camel’s back" by three of the ten-member National Executive, Gary O’Donovan, Dylan Hutchinson, Audrey O’Leary, who resigned in protest at the treatment of the Kilkenny branch, and because of a "toxic" atmosphere within the Executive.^[17]

• Young Fine Gael