Kenny quiet on Cabinet comments

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has this afternoon refused to say if he supports weekend comments by senior members of his Cabinet about the Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness.

Mr Kenny said that he does not want to be drawn into any war of words, given the special relationship the Taoiseach would have with the next President.

"Hear my words," he said. "I will not comment on any candidate in this campaign except the Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell."

At the weekend, the Environment Minister Phil Hogan questioned the suitability of Mr McGuinness for the role, claiming that foreign investors would "not be slow to whisper about a terrorist in the Park".

The Chief Whip Paul Kehoe tweeted "I wouldn’t trust Martin McGuinness to take my dog for a walk", before alleging that Mr McGuinness has access to money stolen from the Northern Bank.

“Why would you need your salary when you have the proceeds of the Northern Bank at your disposal,” he tweeted.

A spokesman for Mr McGuinness said that it was "an absolutely outrageous remark for the Government Chief Whip to make".

While he appeared to distance himself from the comments of Ministers Hogan and Kehoe, the Taoiseach hinted that he would not be reprimanding the pair.

"In every election campaign, you’re going to have comments made from people in the heat of battle, these are electoral comments," he said.

"It is up to each candidate to be truthful and open in respect of the questions that are being asked of them by the people."

The issue dominated this afternoon's questions at the campaign launch of Mr Mitchell.

"I spent most of the time yesterday in a debate with Mr McGuinness trying to establish the truthfulness of some of the claims he made and I didn’t have any success so I wish you (the interviewer) success with it," he said.