The Minister for Tourism and Sport, Dr McDaid, was under continued pressure last night over his remarks that people who commit suicide are "selfish bastards".
There was sustained criticism of the Minister's comments, not just from Opposition politicians but also Cabinet colleagues.
Outgoing Fine Gael TD Mr Bernard Allen said the Minister should resign. Labour's Mr Eamonn Gilmore said that if the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, did not sack Dr McDaid, the constituents of Donegal North East should do so in two weeks when they vote.
In a statement released yesterday, Dr McDaid said that when he was invited to attend a meeting of young people at a hotel in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, on April 15th, the organisers had stressed it was strictly private. This was to allow people to feel free to express their opinions without fear of being quoted.
When he was asked about suicide, the Minister said he decided to mention one of the saddest episodes he had experienced as a medical practitioner, involving the son of a friend who had committed suicide.
"She was naturally distraught when she told me that shortly after she found her son's body she called him a 'selfish bastard'. Her language may surprise people but I knew that she did not really mean it. She loved her son very dearly." In view of the inordinate number of young men who had committed suicide in the county in recent years, Dr McDaid decided to use that as a "kind of parable" to the young people at the meeting.
"I'm afraid I felt very emotional as I spoke and obviously did not choose my words as carefully as I should have. However it was a genuine attempt to administer a kind of shock treatment to a number of young people," he said, adding that it might cause them to seek professional help if they were feeling that way.
However, earlier yesterday the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said she questioned why Dr McDaid had made the remarks and said she was shocked by them, although she was sure he did not intend to "inflict such terrible hurt deliberately". "I want to apologise for those remarks which have caused intense hurt . . . I can only say we share a sense of shock that people are feeling and we fail to understand it." Asked if she also believed that people who committed suicide were "selfish bastards", Ms O'Rourke said she did not.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said he was "shocked when I heard that he had made the statements that he made". He said it certainly did not reflect his own view "and it doesn't reflect the Fianna Fáil view". He also apologised.
The Taoiseach said he accepted Dr McDaid's apology, but said he did not share his views. He revealed that he had lost three close friends to suicide, one in the middle of the 1997 general election campaign. The cause in all three cases seemed to have been pressure, the Taoiseach said.
But Fine Gael's Mr Allen said he believed a Minister who has so much contact with young people through different schemes and programmes that he administers, was not fit to hold ministerial office if he held such views.
"Instead of offering sympathy and support to young people he is judging them and admonishing them," the Cork TD said on RTÉ radio yesterday.
Dr McDaid also said that a very disturbing aspect of what had occurred was that someone who was present at a private meeting should maliciously leak his words to the media. "The intention of this person was certainly not to offer comfort to grieving families throughout the country who had endured the suicide of a loved one." The fact that we were in the middle of an election may well speak for itself, he said. His main concern now, he said, was for the families throughout the country who may have been seriously upset by the remarks. "I can only hope they accept my heartfelt apology."
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said Dr McDaid's comment about suicide was "a completely inappropriate, harsh and cruel thing to say". One of the party's candidates, Cllr Deirdre de Burca, who works in the area of mental health, said it was "incredible".