Standing by them.
Presidential hopeful Peter Casey refused to withdraw the comments he made about the travelling community.
Speaking on the Virgin Media One debate, the first presidential debate with all six candidates, moderated by Pat Kenny, Casey did not retract the comments he made earlier on Wednesday.
He said that Ireland is a "melting pot" and one group should not be chosen as "special".
Gavin Duffy stated that he asked Casey to withdraw his comments.
Casey denied this claim.
"I stand by the remarks, you didn't ask me Gavin that's a lie, and if you had have asked me, I'd have said no," Casey said.
In an interview on '
The Floating Voter' podcast on independent.ie, Casey spoke about last year's decision by the Dáil to give formal recognition to Travellers as a distinct ethic group.
Casey said: "That’s a load of nonsense. They are not from Romany or whatever."
"Can you imagine the brave person from Dublin that would say, ‘I’d love a lovely four-bedroom house with solar panels and beautifully kitted-out kitchens'?"
He went on to say: "Somebody needs to sit up and say this is nonsense. Here we are are giving them luxurious houses and they’re turning them down because they’ve no stables."
