Sinn Féin distances itself from Ó Broin's 'off the cuff' remarks on civil servant

Eoin Ó Broin arriving at Leinster House this evening. Picture: Stephen Collins / Collins Photos

Sinn Féin has distanced itself from its own housing spokesman and rejected comments he made suggesting the Government’s chief economist should not be offering advice on housing.

Housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said Paschal Donohoe’s chief economist should not be advising the Government, despite withdrawing an earlier call for him to be sacked.

Mr Ó Broin has expressed remorse over his comments about John McCarthy, chief economist at the Department of Finance, saying they were “ill-judged”.

However, on Sunday, Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion said Mr Ó Broin’s comments were “not the party position” and were “totally wrong”.

“That is not the Sinn Fein position. Eoin has acknowledged that those comments are completely inappropriate and they are completely inappropriate,” she told RTÉ's The Week in Politics.

Pressed about the claim that Mr McCarthy should not advise the government on housing policy, Ms Funchion made clear such comments were not the Sinn Féin stance.

“I'm just setting out what the Sinn Féin position is, and it's not that,” she said.

“There's a very clear difference between those who work in the civil service and those who are ministers,” she added. 

“Those comments were totally wrong, off the cuff or not. There's a total difference between people who are civil servants, doing their jobs... It's the ministers that we should hold to account,” she said.

Mr Ó Broin made the initial comments at a music festival in Co Roscommon, saying: “I think John [McCarthy] should be sacked… You have a guy who knows nothing about housing, nothing at all. He is a very, very orthodox. I would argue, an almost evangelical economist in terms of his way of seeing things. He was the kind of economist that advised the government to do the kinds of things that they did before the crash.”

Following the publication of these remarks by the Irish Dáily Mail, Mr Ó Broin accepted his comments were ill-judged.

In a statement, Mr Ó Broin said: “It was an ill-judged off-the-cuff comment made during a conversation on the housing crisis. I was deeply frustrated with the advice given to the government that they should not increase investment in housing.”

“I don't believe the individual who gave the advice should be sacked. But I also don't believe he should be informing Government housing policy,” he said.

“At a time when an ever-growing number of people can not access affordable homes, and increased investment in social and affordable housing is required to ensure those people can access affordable homes, such ill-conceived advice is a contributory factor to the housing crisis,” he added.

Taoiseach Michéal Martin said such comments have no place in Irish politics. “These types of personal derogatory comments about civil servants have no place in Irish politics,” he said.

Minister of State Patrick O'Donovan warned that the comments from Mr Ó Broin could have a "chilling" effect on civil servants.