Alan Dukes told the Irish Mirror he would like to “apologise unreservedly” for the comments he made about “border people.’
The former Fine Gael leader took great offense to people living in border counties when he told an RTE documentary that they “turn to violence more easily”.
He made his comments on the Quinn Country program which examined the life and times of former billionaire businessman, Seán Quinn, who is originally from and lives in the border area.
The offensive comments were aired in the series finale episode which aired on Wednesday night and there was an immediate angry backlash from the audience.
Twitter was flooded with people from all over the country slamming Mr Dukes.
And border county politicians including Fine Gael minister Heather Humphreys, Fianna Fáil TD, Brendan Smith and Sinn Féin TD, Matt Carthy, have all criticized Dukes and called on him to apologise.
Mr Dukes later came on the Today with Claire Byrne Show on RTE Radio One on Thursday morning to address the public fury but refused to back down on his remarks.
However, the savvy ex-politician changed his mind when the Irish Mirror contacted him this afternoon.
Mr Dukes told the Mirror he wants to “apologise unreservedly.”
He also said he would make this apology live on national radio when he appears on the Matt Cooper Show on Today FM later this afternoon.
Dukes later told Cooper on Thursday evening, “Those remarks were entirely unjustified and I apologise unreservedly. I apologise without any reservation,”.
His comments on the show were met with much anger with some social media users saying he is a “smug git”, while users say “he took pleasure out of Quinn’s problems”.
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