Leo Varadkar has given a free pass to Catherine Noone after her ignorant autism comments.
The Taoiseach was on the campaign trail in Galway this morning after the RTE leaders’ debate in NUIG on Monday night.
He held a brief press conference with reporters and Ms Noone’s stupid autism remarks was the only thing anyone wanted to ask him about.
She said she thought Mr Varadkar was on the autism spectrum after his awkward performance on the Virgin Media One leaders’ debate last week.
Mr Varadkar said that he accepted the senator and Dáil hopeful’s comments and wanted to now move on.
He said: “I haven’t spoken to her (Ms Noone) yet, but I’m sure I will over the next couple of days.
“She has withdrawn her remarks and apologised and that’s good enough for me.
“But look, it’s not about me.
“I just think that we all need to be very aware and very respectful to people that 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.
“This is a government that has prioritised autism, we have more units than ever before, more special assistants than ever before, more special classes than ever before and we’ve also set aside €2million this year for an awareness campaign to educate the public better about understanding what autism and the autism spectrum is.
“We know that isn’t enough, but it is a start and we’re going to build on it if re-elected to office.”
Mr Varadkar added that there would be no formal party sanctions for Ms Noone.
