Joan Burton: ‘Standing back, doing a bit of Downton Abbey and teacups is not me’

Tánaiste Joan Burton has deflected criticism that she is strident and uses her hands too much in debate.

“If I may say ‘people would say that’ to a woman who’s running for very senior office,” she said to cheers from supporters at the Project Arts in Dublin, where the Tánaiste was unveiling the party’s policy on arts.

The Minister for Social Protection said the “standing back, sitting down and doing a little bit of Downton Abbey and teacups” was not her.

She was pressed about her “failure to listen to debate advice” on her mannerisms and suggestions it could endanger Labour’s chances at the election.

Ms Burton said to laughter - including from Minister of State Aodháin Ó Riordáin and Dublin Bay South TD Kevin Humphreys who flanked her - that "lots of male colleagues have peculiarities, mannerisms, that not everybody cares for, but clearly when women are involved in politics they're properly scrutinised to an extraordinarily detailed degree".

She told the media today: “Yes I feel passionate about politics. I don’t regard that as a fault. I regard that as what drives my concern to make people’s lives better.

“Other people may feel there is something in appropriate about a woman not standing back, sitting down and doing a little bit of Downton Abbey and the teacups. That’s not me.

“I feel very, very passionate about this country, about the potential for its future, about our young people.

“So I apologise if I didn’t meet the standards of everybody, but I’m confident as well that our Labour candidates and TDs are going to do a surprise on the day and do very well.”

At the launch she pledged to invest €150 million more into the arts and culture, doubling the budget of the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board.

She said it would involve creating a new Arts Capital Fund to develop and upgrade artistic spaces.

Asked if it would be a “red line” issue for her if she was in talks about forming government, Ms Burton said she was a good negotiator, respected those she was negotiating with but added she was also “very determined”.

Ms Burton also deflected questions about Taoiseach Enda Kenny not entirely ruling out potential coalition with Fianna Fáil.

Asked if she needed to “handbag” him about the issue, she said: “The basis of all successful coalition partnerships is not that both parties are looking in opposite directions or looking forward together.”

She added that “in relation to the Taoiseach, since I’ve became Tánaiste we’ve had lots of frank discussion.

“The real discussions have taken place in coalition rather than in the Dáil.”

Pressed about Fianna Fail being in government Ms Burton said: “If progressive voters want to see real economic and social progress made over the next five years they need to vote Labour, and I’m asking them to vote Labour and they need to re-elect the current Government, because it is actually the only serious offer about a progressive government over the next five years that will actually deliver to the Irish people”.