Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said he regrets suggesting a car pooling scheme for villages in rural Ireland.
Mr Ryan faced major backlash this week after he suggested that a rural village of 300 people could get around using a car sharing scheme with just 30 cars.
Today the TD hit back at the criticism, saying it had been blown out of proportion.
He said: “I’ve spent the last three days fighting the whole world coming at me saying 'you’re mad and you hate rural Ireland'.”
And he added that he regrets ever making the comments in the first place.
“I regret it completely because it’s taken off like a mad thing. Maybe I should just shut up and never say anything.”
But Mr Ryan insisted that his comments were being misinterpreted.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Ryan said that the scheme could work as an option for people in rural Ireland.
Clarifying his comments, he said: “Take that town or village let’s say 1,000 people... that town would have about four or five hundred cars... If you had 30 within that that were in a car pooling arrangement.”
“I wasn’t saying to get rid of the other 500 cars, it’s to say that (car pooling) gives some people options and choice and flexibility.”
Earlier this week the Green Party issued a statement which said that Ryan’s suggestion had been badly misrepresented online and in the media.
Citing an article in the Irish Times, the statement read: “By now you’ve probably read the headline that Eamon Ryan wants to restrict cars in rural Ireland.
“This headline has caused a flood of online fury – and rightly so, because a suggestion like that would be ridiculous and impractical.
“It would be tone-deaf to needs of our rural communities, and frankly insulting to people who are dealing with a total lack of any public transport on a daily basis.”
Also speaking on the show was Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae, who slammed Mr Ryan saying he was “out of touch with reality” and speaking “gobbledygook”.
Deputy Healy-Rae also hit back at Mr Ryan’s claims that his comments were being misrepresented in the media, saying: “He’s trying to save his own political skin now this morning by trying to do a hopeless U-turn.”
