Catherine Noone 'truly sorry' and 'mortified' by her 'autistic' comments

Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone is said to be “mortified and humiliated” after she described Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as “autistic” to a journalist.
Sources close to Senator Noone have told the Irish Examiner that she is very regretful and fearful of the impact the episode will have on her campaign following her “unequivocal apology”.
Mr Varadkar refused to discipline Ms Noone after her comments were published by the Times website.
The Taoiseach said he accepted her apology and hoped people would still vote for the Dublin Bay North candidate.
While canvassing in Galway, he said: "I haven't spoken to her yet, I'm sure I will over the course of the next couple of days.
“She has withdrawn her remarks and apologised and that's good enough for me. It's not about me.
I just think that we all need to be very aware and very respectful of people who have autism, people who are on the autism spectrum and we need to understand that those terms should never be used in a pejorative way at all.
Pressed by journalists as to whether the senator would be sanctioned, Mr Varadkar ruled this out.
“No, she has withdrawn her remarks in full and she has apologised to those people who she offended. That's enough."
Asked whether he would still encourage people to vote for the Dublin Bay North candidate in the election, Mr Varadkar said: “I encourage people to vote for all of our Fine Gael candidates. Richard Bruton and Catherine Noone are our candidates in that constituency."
He also said he would probably go canvassing with Ms Noone, but it was not on the schedule yet.
Ms Noone “unequivocally apologised” this morning in a terse two-line statement.
“I unequivocally apologise and withdraw all of my remarks, as reported by theTimes.ie, which were completely unacceptable.
My choice of language was inexcusable and wrong. I am truly sorry.
"I will not be making any further comment,” she said.
The former running mate of Mr Varadkar in Dublin West made the comments when asked by the reporter about Mr Varadkar's performance on last week's Virgin Media head-to-head debate with Micheál Martin.
Ms Noone said Mr Varadkar is a “very good politician” but conceded that he was “a bit wooden”.
“He’s autistic like, he’s on the spectrum, there’s no doubt about it. He’s uncomfortable socially and he doesn’t always get the in-between bits,” she said.
“If I do say so, I am much more natural than he would be. I’ve been in rooms with him and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He’s naturally shy. But he’s actually a very good politician.
“I didn’t mean it in the sense of the actual illness or anything. I just mean he can be a bit wooden and lacking in empathy," she said. “I shouldn’t have even said it in that way.”
Ms Noone explained that her comment had been taken out of context. “Sometimes I say, ‘Oh God, I’m a bit special’ but I don’t mean it to be derogatory,” she said.
Outgoing Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath strongly criticised the Senator's comments.
“They were ill-informed and extremely damaging to a section of Irish society”, said Mr McGrath.
“People with Autism are a part of Irish society and should always be treated as equals in line with the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with a Disability."