Catherine Noone has been told to educate herself about autism after her ill-informed remark about Leo Varadkar.
The slur, in which she called her Fine Gael colleague and party leader ‘autistic’, has offended the autism community and her apology has not been accepted - according to one advocacy group.
Senator Noone made the comment while out canvassing and discussing Mr Varadkar's performance on Virgin Media’s leaders' debate.
She has since withdrawn her comments and apologised.
But Fiona Ferris of AsIAm, Ireland’s national autism charity, has said the senator's remark was totally unacceptable.
Ms Ferris said: “To be honest, it’s quite shocking and completely unacceptable to the autistic community that the word autistic is being used as an adjective.
“I don’t [accept the apology]. I would agree with her that it’s unacceptable and inexcusable.
“If we go about the attitude of saying people can say whatever they want and then totally withdraw a statement, I mean, the world would not be a very nice place.
“This kind of stigma sticks and my biggest concern here would be that a political representative thinks that the word autistic can be used as a describing word for a set of characteristics.”
Ms Ferris said the autism community is upset over the comments and this incident only further highlights the misconceptions with the neurodevelopmental disorder.
She told RTE’s Sean O’Rourke show: “The only part of action she can take here is to fully educate herself on what autism is.
“She described it as an illness which autism is absolutely not, it’s a neurodevelopmental condition and that’s even more insensitive to the autism community.
“While she is trying to justify when she said it she’s also stereotyping what it means to be autisitc.
“The fact she said he lacks empathy and that’s what she was associating with autism.
“That is a very common misconception with autism and it’s totally inaccurate.
“I would 100% think [the autism community] will [be offended] - it’s not just representing the community.”
