INDEPENDENT TD MICHAEL Healy-Rae has defended his remarks in the Dáil to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar yesterday, saying that he “didn’t insult anybody”.
In a tense Dáil spat between the two during Leaders Questions, both Varadkar and Healy-Rae accused one another of ‘looking down’ at each other following some debate on the Shannon LNG.
During the spat, Varadkar took issue with the term “airy-fairies” and called on Healy-Rae to “reflect on it”.
“Off with you with the airy fairies and see how far it will get you. But you can be sure of one thing, it is not a nice thing to look down your nose at me and say what you said to me a while ago,” Healy-Rae said yesterday.
“It is not nice what you said to me either, Deputy, just there, quite frankly. Reflect on it and think about it. Just think about what you said,” Varadkar said in response.
In an interview with Radio Kerry this morning, Healy-Rae said that it was used as a distraction and to deflect from answering questions on the Shannon LNG project.
“You cannot apologise or say you’re sorry when you purposely didn’t do anything wrong. I definitely didn’t insult anybody,” Healy-Rae said.
“Do you really think I was really thinking about the Tánaiste’s private life or his sexuality, do you really think that that was in the front of my head when I was standing up inside of the Dáil?”
Healy-Rae has previously used the term ‘airy-fairy’ in the Dáil on four occasions, including yesterday.
He said he believes Varadkar knows that he did not make the comment about his sexuality
“He knows in his heart and soul that I meant nothing about anybody’s private personal business.”
Speaking to reporters earlier this morning, Varadkar said that he has not “lost any sleep” about Healy-Rae’s comments yesterday, but reiterated that the Kerry TD should reflect on them.
“He said what he said, I said what I said. I certainly haven’t lost any sleep about it. I just asked him to reflect on it, I didn’t ask him to apologise.”
Varadkar appeared to imply that he believed Healy-Rae’s comments were homophobic, saying that when people make remarks that can be viewed as homophobic, they should be called out.
“I think the truth is all of us from time to time can say things that might be racist or homophobic or misogynistic or misandristic, that can happen. I think that when it’s called out, people should acknowledge it.”
He did however say that he was not in favour of pile-ons or so-called cancel culture.
When pressed further on whether or not he thought the comments were homophobic, Varadkar said: “I’m saying what I said, and that’s all I’m saying”.
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