Sinn Féin says it is reorganising its structures in the Cork East constituency, after the mass resignation of members in two major cumanns.
Earlier this week, it was announced that as a result of an internal review one of its county councillors had been expelled, while a second had been suspended.
70 members of Sinn Féin have since left the party in Fermoy and Cobh.
Sinn Féin has refused to clarify what the review of the group entailed or why they decided to take action against two of their councillors - Kieran McCarthy and Melissa Mullane.
The popular view is that the party did not want anyone to challenge sitting TD, Sandra McLellan, at the constituency convention.
This has been refuted by Cork North-Central TD Jonathon O'Brien who told Newstalk Lunchtime they could have done without it at this time.
Sinn Fein TD for Cork North-Central Jonathan O’Brien spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime earlier - telling Jonathan Healy that while he is "aware that there has been a number of people who have indicated publicly that they are going to resign but to the best of my knowledge as of this morning we haven’t received any formal letters of resignation, but I do expect that we will get some in."
“I expect nowhere near 60 people resigning," he added.
Listen to the full Lunchtime interview with Jonathan O'Brien TD below:
Meanwhile Cork East TD Sandra McLellan has broken her silence on the expulsion and suspension of the councillors - calling it tough, but fair.
Deputy McLellan said she is satisfied with the outcome of the internal review by the party of the constituency.
The review was carried out by Cork North-Central TD Jonathan O'Brien.
It resulted in Councillor Kieran McCarthy being expelled from the party, and Councillor Melissa Mullane being suspended for 12 months.
Deputy McLellan said she will put her name forward once again to stand for Sinn Féin in the upcoming general election.
In her statement, the TD says the internal review in Cork East has been tough for party members but "now is the time to move on from the whole episode".
