TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar had last night still not responded to criticism of comments he made about the Belfast rape trial involving Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding during a live radio show.
Mr Varadkar referenced the case during an interview on Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show on the abortion referendum earlier this month.
Radio host Mr Kenny was forced to intervene on two occasions when the Taoiseach commented on a "certain trial happening in Belfast".
Mr Varadkar was being quizzed on why proposed laws to be brought in if the Eighth Amendment is repealed in the Republic do not deal specifically with rape or incest.
He was attempting to make the point that introducing rape as a specific grounds for abortion would not be workable as it would require some form of process to prove an attack had occurred.
He said provision to allow women access to abortion pills up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy would "deal with that issue".
"I won't speak about it in any detail, but I’m sure we’re all following a certain trial happening in Belfast, you know a rape trial happening in Belfast at the moment," he said.
Mr Kenny then intervened in the discussion, telling Mr Varadkar that "we have to leave it to the jury to decide the outcome on that".
But Mr Varadkar went onto to make his point that if rape was a specific ground for seeking a termination "can you imagine putting women through something like that, or anything even vaguely approaching that".
His comments were later described as "mind blowing" by Irish Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin.
He told the Independent's podcast 'The Floating Voter': "For a politician it is doubly bad. For the Taoiseach it is quite mind blowing that any comment would be made about an ongoing trial. I hadn't heard it before.
"To say it's unfortunate is to put it mildly."
Adding that while Mr Varadkar's comments were made in a different jurisdiction, "if you say something on any broadcast media, whether it's social media or a radio station, you assume it's broadcast to the world".
It was also reported yesterday that Mr Varadkar had sought legal advice following the interview.
The Taoiseach's office had last night not responded to questions from the Irish News about his remarks.
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