Varadkar: I'm happy Verona Murphy didn't get elected

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he is glad former Fine Gael candidate Verona Murphy did not get elected and that her remarks about migrants and possible terrorist attacks here feed into racist views.

Hitting back at the failed Wexford by-election candidate and her criticism of Fine Gael this week, Mr Varadkar admitted it was a "mistake" selecting Ms Murphy to run for his party in the first place.

In his candid comments to journalists, Mr Varadkar admitted that if Ms Murphy had managed to win a seat that this could have "emboldened" her and resulted in more claims around migrants.

Ms Murphy was dropped by the party earlier this week as a general election candidate. She caused outrage during the recent Wexford by-election by claiming asylum seekers needed to be “deprogrammed” and may have been influenced by terrorist group ISIS.

Mr Varadkar explained:

Quite frankly, I’m glad she didn’t get elected because what we have seen in her recent interviews is that she unfortunately does harbour these views towards migrants.

This week Ms Murphy did not rule out running as an independent in the general election. She said she had been briefed about migrants by groups such as Interpol and she asked whether Wexford Bridge may be subject to a terrorist attack like London had been.

Mr Varadkar condemned her remarks:

“You know we heard the comment about Wexford Bridge and London Bridge- you know, that is raising the spectre that migration may result in terrorist attacks in Ireland, and that’s just not factual, and is just really inflammatory I think, it really feeds into the kind of racist views and xenophobic views that unfortunately are harboured by a lot of people, or at least some people in our society, and had she been elected I think she would have been emboldened, I think we would’ve heard more of that, but it would have been coming from a TD and I think she wouldn’t have lasted long in Fine Gael for those reasons.

Asked did he regret selecting her to run for Fine Gael, Mr Varadkar said:

“Yes, it was a mistake, and I accept responsibility for that mistake.”