Taoiseach: It's up to Robbie Keane where he coaches

Former Ireland soccer great Robbie Keane poses for photographers in Tel Aviv, Israel when he was hired to coach Israeli soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv. Picture: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

The Taoiseach has said that it is up to Robbie Keane to make his own choices about where he coaches.

Keane, Ireland's record goal scorer in men's soccer, is currently head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv. He was criticised by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald for returning to the role having fled the country at the outbreak of the war with Palestine in October.

Ms McDonald told The Irish Examiner: "I think sport should be a force for good, for human capacity and human excellence and enjoyment and participation. I have a real problem with sport when it is under the remit of an apartheid regime and where genocide is being committed.

"I know lots and lots of sportspeople in Ireland and beyond have taken an incredibly firm stand on the Palestinian question, just as lots of sporting people did—and I'm thinking our rugby team, rugby players in particular—in respect of apartheid South Africa."

However, speaking on Wednesday, Leo Varadkar said he would not join in Ms McDonald's criticism and that it was for Robbie Keane and his family to decide whether to live and work in Israel.

Mr Varadkar also differed with Ms McDonald over house prices. In an interview with The Irish Times, the Sinn Féin leader had said that average house prices should drop to around €300,000. However, the Taoiseach told a media conference such a move would be a bad thing.

"I was a little taken aback to hear those comments. I’d be interested to know from Mary Lou McDonald and Eoin O Broin how they would propose to bring average house prices down to €300,000 in Dublin. I’m not sure they really thought about it to be honest.

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"That would have significant consequences—it would put a lot of people into negative equity, particularly the vast majority of people who bought their first home in the last couple of years. And it would also send a message to the banks—because if banks and lenders hear that the potential next Taoiseach wants house prices to fall by that much, they will think twice about issuing mortgages to people against assets that are going to be worth less. 

"I really feel that, while I understand the intention behind Mary Lou’s comments, we all want houses to be more affordable, people are really listening to what she says now—bankers, lawyers, financiers, investors—and if the message she sends out to lenders is that if you issue a mortgage to somebody, I’m going to try and make the collateral to that worth less, the message then is, issue fewer mortgages and put up interest rates. 

"And I’m not sure she fully appreciates that she is now in a position where what she says really matters."