‘Remark is inappropriate’

Minister for Mental Health Helen McEntee said remarks made about her by the Government chief whip are “completely inappropriate”.

Government whip, Regina O’Doherty was asked if she “got on” with her Fine Gael constituency colleague from Meath-East in a newspaper interview.

“No, not at all. And I have no idea why. She would walk past me in the corridor and wouldn’t even blink her eyes. And I don’t know why,” Ms Doherty answered.

Ms McEntee was asked if she was going to respond to the comment the chief whip made and she said she would deal with the matter within the party.

“It is a completely inappropriate comment to make about a colleague and I will deal with it internally within the party,” she told the Irish Examiner.

Their fellow party member Noel Rock, who represents Dublin North-West, said rivalry can be at its greatest between colleagues in the same constituency.

“I think it’s unfair to make a public comment about a party colleague like that. I think if there are any differences they should be sorted out in private but I do know from my few years in politics, even as a young person that there is no greater rivalry perhaps than between two party colleagues in the same constituency,” he said.

Ms Doherty was asked if she would like to respond to her colleagues’ comments on the matter, but a spokesperson for the chief whip said that “at this point in time” there is “nothing further to add”.