Describing herself as an opponent of "EU militarism",[5] her views have been the subject of controversy and criticism in Europe, but have been promoted by state-controlled media in Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and other authoritarian states.

On leaving college she took a job in the catering section of Aer Lingus on a low wage,[10] and became SIPTU's shop steward at Dublin Airport.

[14] In 2003, Daly was jailed for a month, alongside 21 others from the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign for breaching a High Court order preventing protests leading to obstruction of the council's non-collection policy for those not paying bin charges.

[15][16] in 2011, she announced that she would not register to pay a new household charge brought in as part of the latest austerity budget, calling it "reprehensible", and telling Phil Hogan, the minister responsible, in the Dáil: "You can't bring everyone to court".

[14][20] During the presidential election campaign later that year, Daly and Higgins supported the nomination of independent candidate David Norris in his search for the 20 Oireachtas members necessary for inclusion on the ballot paper.

[21] In February 2012, it was reported that she would introduce a bill to provide for limited access to abortion where there is "real and substantial risk to the life" of the pregnant woman, in line with the X Case.

Daly described the dispute over this as a "smear campaign", saying that legal advice was being sought as there was a lack of clarity around the issue and that she would refund any money that was used inappropriately.

[24][25][26][27][needs update] In June of that same year, Daly refused to call for the resignation of her friend and political ally Mick Wallace in the wake of his VAT controversy.

[33] Following the 39th G8 summit, Daly accused the Fine Gael–Labour government of "prostituting" the country to US President Barack Obama and criticised what she described as media and political "slobbering" over his wife Michelle and their children during their stay in Ireland.

She also called Obama a hypocrite and a war criminal for speaking about peace whilst using drones to bomb foreign civilians and wanting to supply weapons to Syrian rebels.

[42] In December 2015, Daly along with independent TDs Mick Wallace and Maureen O'Sullivan each put forward offers of a €5,000 surety for a 23-year-old man being prosecuted under terrorism legislation in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, charged with membership of an illegal dissident republican terrorist organisation.

[48] The Irish Times reported in April 2022 that, after becoming MEPs, Daly and Wallace were given high profiles in the state-controlled media of authoritarian states such as Russia, China, Iran and Syria.

[55] Daly was interviewed on camera and praised the PMF's activities, saying it "upholds international law" unlike "the United States and many European countries".

She said that, since the Iraqi parliament voted in favour of an American troop withdrawal, US forces were "an occupying power, so in that sense they're fair game.

[60] A clip from a European parliament speech by Daly was broadcast on Russian state media Rossiya 1 and Channel One Russia, where a presenter and a guest said it was "evidence that western politicians were coming around to the Kremlin point of view on the Ukraine invasion".

[61] According to The Irish Times, Daly's and Wallace's positions on Putin's Russia have caused tensions with other members of The Left in the European Parliament.

They sought to remove a statement that a Dutch-led investigation found that Russia's military supplied the missile which downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 civilians.

[70][71] Daly denounced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a "vicious anti-immigrant racist" and asked why MEPs were so outraged at his arrest by Russia's security forces.

[58] In a 2024 interview, Daly described the war in Ukraine as "incredibly dangerous for the world" and Volodymyr Zelenskyy's calls for weapons and money as "increasingly unhinged".

[72] In November 2021, Daly and Wallace travelled to Lithuania to support Algirdas Paleckis, a politician found guilty of spying for Russia's Federal Security Service in return for money.

[74] Daly responded that journalists should "cover the work that we actually do instead of occupying your time with these constant attempts to construct elaborate guilt-by-association conspiracy theories".

On 10 November 2023, she criticised European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for not calling for a ceasefire, saying that "Israel has spent a month pounding Gaza into rubble and filling the streets with children's blood.

Daly referred to von der Leyen as "Frau Genocide" and accused her of "overriding the foreign policies of elected governments all to cheerlead a brutal apartheid regime that she calls a 'vibrant democracy' as [it] pulverizes a city of children".

[80] Fellow Irish MEP Barry Andrews (of Fianna Fáil) accused Daly and Wallace of spreading a conspiracy theory that the attack was staged by the White Helmets.

[79] The White Helmets, a Syrian civil protection group that gathered evidence of war crimes, "have been subject of smear campaigns backed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and ally Russia".

While MEPs can make personal trips overseas, according to The Irish Times, Daly and Wallace made no mention in their tweets that they were acting in an unofficial capacity.

[81] Daly and Wallace issued a joint statement in response that read: "This is a political stunt by the centre right parties in the European Parliament, and we will be challenging it.

We made abundantly clear by public announcement at the time that we were not visiting Ecuador or Venezuela with an official election observation mandate."

They continued: "Although we regret that the Ecuadorian people did not choose Andrés Arauz as their president, we found the elections to be conducted fairly and impartially, and their results are beyond question.

[84][85] In April 2022, Daly and Wallace sued for defamation against RTÉ, the Republic of Ireland's national broadcasting service, for undisclosed reasons.