The Taniaste Leo Varadkar claims that Sinn Fein contains a “huge number of convicted criminals” including tax dodgers and murderers, Ireland’s deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar has said during a heated row in the country’s parliament.
A row broke out when Varadkar and Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty were debating the cost of living.
Doherty, Sinn Fein’s finance spokesman, claimed the deputy PM was “out of touch” on the matter.
Doherty said that Mr Varadkar should be “more humble” given that the Director of Public Prosecutions is investigating his leaking of a confidential government document.
However, Varadkar said that was a “cheap shot” and accused Sinn Fein of being a “hypocritical party” that “receives millions of donations from vagabonds who live in a caravan”.
“It says a lot about you, and the nature and the character of kind of person you are and it’s particularly strange coming from you because you were prosecuted,” Mr Varadkar said.
“You abused, mistreated an Garda Siochana.
“For that you were prosecuted, you were found guilty. Yes, you got away without a conviction because of your age at the time.
“But you were actually prosecuted, you were arrested. That’s what happened to you.”
“There are a huge number of convicted criminals in your party and in your wider republican family, whether that is tax dodgers like Slab Murphy, a good republican, according to Mary Lou McDonald, a good republican, a tax dodger. People who were convicted for murder.”
Varadkar added: “We know what your party’s attitude is to rape and paedophiles and what you’ve done in relation to that. So your cheap shots say a lot more about you than they do about me.”
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