Irish Senator Catherine Noone sorry for 'autistic' remark
- Published
Leo Varadkar said Ms Noone's apology was "good enough for him"
An Irish politician has apologised for calling Taoiseach Leo Varadkar autistic.
Fine Gael general election candidate Catherine Noone said she wanted to "unequivocally apologise and withdraw all of my remarks".
Ms Noone was quoted as saying: "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."
Her words appeared on The Times Ireland website after she was canvassing for the upcoming Irish election with one of their reporters.
Later, she said her words were "completely unacceptable" and her choice of language was "inexcusable and wrong. I am truly sorry".
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She also said that the taoiseach was "naturally shy" but "a very good politician".
Mr Varadkar said her apology was "good enough for him" and she would not face any suspension.
"It's not about me. I just think that we all need to be very aware," he said.
"I'm 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.
"And this is a government that has prioritised autism more than ever before for special needs assistance, never before more special classes, never before.
"I set aside €2m this year for an autism awareness campaign to educate the public better about understanding (autism)."