Ahern under fire for vintners comments

THE Taoiseach’s outspoken comments about ‘disgraceful’ publicans was yesterday slammed by the Vintners Federation of Ireland as “scandalous”.

In an angry response, VFI executive member Val Hanley called on the Taoiseach to withdraw remarks he made about the mass meeting of publicans in Portlaoise on Tuesday, which he said were a total misrepresentation of what had been said.

Mr Hanley, who is also a Fianna Fáil councillor in Galway City, said that the organisation had convened an emergency meeting for tomorrow, to decide on its response to the Taoiseach’s remarks.