Micheál Martin has slapped down Tommy Tiernan over comments the comedian made about not enough money going into Irish foreign aid.
The Navan funnyman took on the government in the Tommy, Hector and Laurita podcast where he said our politicians should be sanctioning giving more to poorer countries.
He said the government was giving “not enough money and they know it.”
Mr Tiernan believes we need to give at least 0.7% of our wealth to developing, war-stricken and third world countries.
READ MORE: Alcohol update ahead of Budget 2023 as inflation leads to soaring prices
However, the Taoiseach has hit back, saying that Ireland has a “proud” record in this area.
Mr Martin said: "I think Ireland is already committed to changing the structural issues around food poverty, Ireland has been one of the stronger countries now historically, on nutrition, on global food programs.
“For example, we would have historically been involved with the Tigra, for example, in Ethiopia, over decades, in terms of agricultural techniques, and farming, and so on.
“And yet conflict again intervenes in the form of a terrible war in Ethiopia which has destroyed a lot of what had been achieved.
“I don't accept that that's a fair criticism.
“I've always been very myself with percentages of GNI and GDP as barometers, because it very much depends on a high growth level, for example.
“On a high growth level, where you have a high percentage, you'll never chase it.
“But when you get low growth or negative growth, you suddenly look much better. I think the approach that I will check and we will be increasing the ... [doesn't finish sentence] and we have, and Ireland is seen positively across the developing world as a country that is serious, not just in terms of financial allocation, but in terms of how best to change systems, from governance, from women and conflict, resourcing those areas.
“And sometimes that's not well received in recipient countries, in terms of the governance questions, which I think have to come more and more into the reckoning now in terms of when we allocate funding and so on like that we do want to see improvements in governance, we do want to see women treated better, in terms of conflict situations, in terms of education, and so on.
“And I would say that there's always room to improve, of course, but the idea that Ireland doesn't want to give, this is not true, Ireland does want to help, Ireland has been helping for a long, long time in many, many countries.
“You take Uganda, for example, in terms of the achievement of the development goals in terms of primary education, that would have been one of the key countries with others that facilitated the achievement at primary level, many nearly a decade ago now, the achievement of those goals, and then moved on to second level education."
READ NEXT:
- All we know as gardai quiz woman over death of two kids in Westmeath car blaze
- Brian O'Driscoll left red faced as he takes home wrong dog from pet groomer
- First blast of cold weather just days away for Ireland as Met Eireann forecast northerly airflow to take over
- This Irish pub in 'the middle of nowhere' is Ireland's best gastropub - but why is it so highly rated?
- We checked out Dunnes, Tesco, SuperValu and Lidl and found the best value option for you
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
