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# Abortion Debate
‘No excuses, I just shouldn’t have done it’ – Tom Barry
The Cork East TD says that Áine Collins has accepted his apology for grabbing her during a break in last night’s abortion debate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=G7j20etLJk8
(SineadOCarrollTJ/Youtube)
Updated 20.25
Fine Gael TD Tom Barry apologised earlier today for grabbing party colleague Áine Collins and forcing her to sit on his lap.
In a statement Barry said
What I did last night was disrespectful and inappropriate. I have apologised to Aine Collins and she graciously and immediately accepted my apology. No excuses, I just shouldn’t have done it.
The Fine Gael General Secretary, Tom Curran welcomed Barry’s apology and Collins subsequent acceptance but said some of the explanations for what happened do not reflect Fine Gael’s view:
“I wish to make it clear that the instinctive characterisation last night of the incident as ‘horseplay involving two people’ doesn’t reflect how Fine Gael views this kind of behaviour, having seen the footage. One deputy’s actions were unwelcome to another deputy. If it happened in any other workplace, it would be unacceptable. That it happened on the floor of Leinster House makes it more so.”
First published 11:37
Read: Male TD pulls female colleague into his lap – in the Dáil chamber
Read: The abortion debate – what happens next?
