Kenny denies 'glib comments'

A CALL has been made for the Taoiseach to apologise to a protester in Athlone after he told him he could do with a day’s work.

However, Enda Kenny said he had been a victim himself of comments that were unrepeatable in the Dáil.

United Left Alliance TD Richard Boyd Barrett accused Mr Kenny of making a “very demeaning and insulting comment” in Athlone on Monday while canvassing on the treaty.

The Dún Laoghaire TD said when Gordon Hudson, a man who recently lost his small business, challenged the Taoiseach about his policies “he was told by you that ‘you look like a man who could do with a day’s work’ – a very demeaning and insulting comment to a man who’d worked very hard for 30 years”.

The Taoiseach needed to apologise to Mr Hudson for “that dreadful comment”, and he asked “does this indicate a new shift in policy from the one outlined in the programme for government that the new policy is now contempt for people without work, contempt for people who have worked all their lives and tried to contribute to society” and contempt for people forced to emigrate?

He also accused the Taoiseach of “glib” comments about emigration being “a fact of life” when it was “a fact of politics and economics and a disastrous policy of austerity”.

Mr Kenny said he understood “what can happen in times of challenge when people are under stress”. He said: “I myself was the subject and the victim of a range of verbal comments probably from some of your own acquaintances that are unrepeatable in the House here in this forum. I don’t deal in glib comments or demeaning attitudes towards anybody.”

The Taoiseach said he empathised “with everybody who does want to work but cannot find employment or doesn’t have the opportunity to retrain . . . or upskill themselves to find employment”.

Mr Boyd Barrett said: “I don’t know people in Athlone, but I understand Gordon Hudson was in no way being threatening to you . . . but was expressing his frustration as someone who has worked all his life”.

Mr Kenny said what the Government wanted to do for those who lose a business is to “improve the atmosphere and environment within which jobs can be created”.