Fidelma Healy Eames has offered an explanation for her pronunciation of WiFi as “wifee” in the Seanad.

The Senator made the remark during a Seanad debate on a bill to ban certain abusive comments online – the Harmful & Malicious Electronic Communications Bill 2015.

In a Facebook statement, she now says she had “intentionally used the French pronunciation ‘wifee’”.

Ms Healy Eames says she used the correct pronunciation earlier in the debate, before the controversial “wifee” remark. The use of the French pronunciation was, she says, because, “as a nation who travel a lot, I was acknowledging the dependence on and prevalence of wifi, wherever we go. And that there are different pronunciations for the word 'wifi'.”

With the debate during which the remark was made being about online abuse, Ms Healy Eames asks: “is it not ironic that the point made in the Seanad in relation to the potentially damaging use of electronic communications/ social media has been proven by the plethora of keyboard warriors who have jumped on the bandwagon to belittle and to ridicule, while ignoring that I had referred to 'wifi' first?”

“The plethora of media attention today and yesterday shows that it makes a direct contribution to cyber-bullying when not reported accurately. Pathetic really!,” she said.

“But how about if that same harmful treatment was directed at a vulnerable person? How isolating would that be. Think about it.

“There are many more pressing matters that need to be highlighted such as Tunisia, Syria, Greece, in addition to our own serious national issues. Regrettably, this is not what some of our media moguls or keyboard warriors choose to highlight,” she added.