Sinn Féin TD calls Eoin Ó Broin's comments on government economist 'totally wrong'

A Sinn Féin TD has said comments from the party's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, suggesting the Government's chief economist should be fired, were "totally wrong".

Mr Ó Broin has since rowed back on the comments, however, said he does not believe that John McCarthy should be advising the Coalition on housing policy.

The comments were criticised by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion said: "“That is not the Sinn Féin position. He has acknowledged that those comments are completely inappropriate, and they are completely inappropriate."

She said she was “setting out what the Sinn Féin position is, and it’s not that. There’s a very clear difference between those who work in the Civil Service and those who are Ministers ... Those comments were totally wrong, off the cuff or not. There’s a total difference between people who are civil servants, doing their jobs".

Mr Ó Broin made the comments at the Night & Day festival in Roscommon, suggesting Mr McCarthy "should be sacked".

“You have a guy who knows nothing about housing, nothing at all. He is a very, very orthodox, I would almost argue evangelical, economist, in terms of seeing things. He was the kind of economist who advised governments to do the sort of things they did before the crash and he is still in the position he is in.”