Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he “went too far” in recent comments he made about rural Ireland which ignited controversy over the weekend.
On Wednesday, the former Fine Gael leader said he did not “set out to be divisive or offend anyone and [I] apologise for that”.
On Matt Cooper’s Path to Power podcast, Mr Varadkar said that the agricultural sector often “brings costs on Ireland,” and that farmers “still see themselves as the people who bring money and jobs into Ireland, where actually a lot of the time they bring costs on Ireland.”
Mr Varadkar added that what is “in the interests of farmers in the agriculture industry is by and large not in the interests of Ireland as a nation.”
Mr Varadkar further said that urban Ireland needed to be “blunt” with rural residents, adding that: “We’re the ones paying all the bills and you’re the ones in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don’t get.”
Speaking to the Irish Times on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar said: “[I] went too far and over-stated my case on certain other points”.
However, he added that he stood over some of the points made in the interview, arguing that the vast majority of tax is paid in Ireland, with 80 per cent of food imported to Ireland.
Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins said on Tuesday that the former Taoiseach “owed the people of rural Ireland an apology.”
“Leo Varadkar didn’t say that when he was shaking hands at the ploughing championships asking people to support Fine Gael,” said Collins.
Mr Collins said the comments proved a mindset that exists “at the top” that “rural Ireland is a terrine place.”
“I would never want to divide rural Ireland or urban Ireland, because I know the people of this city, in Dublin, are in the same crisis we find ourselves in in rural Ireland,” he added, describing the comments as “appalling.”
Deputy Collins called on current Fine Gael leader Simon Harris to encourage Mr Varadkar to apologise for the comments.
Earlier this week, Independent TD Carol Nolan said she wanted to urge Fine Gael to reject Mr Varadkar’s remarks about farmers, describing them as a “slur.”
“To have a former Taoiseach, blithely offering sweeping and denigrating remarks about rural Ireland, should not surprise anyone who has been paying close attention to his party’s policies, policies that, with the aid of Fianna Fáil and the Greens, have placed a stranglehold around rural Ireland for the last 14 years,” said Deputy Carol Nolan on Monday.
“That being said, for Mr Varadkar to let the mask drop in such casual and callous fashion is utterly remarkable. All that spin from Fine Gael about its commitment to rural Ireland now looks completely hollow.”