The Taoiseach has admitted his Children’s Hospital response on this week’s General Election Leaders’ Debate was “pedantic and semantic”.

During the RTÉ Leader's Debate, presenter Katie Hannon noted that Simon Harris "personally signed the contract that brought us the Children's Hospital saga" during his time as Health Minister.

The Fine Gael leader replied, "well of course I didn't, but continue".

When she put to him that as Health Minister he was responsible for signing the contract, he said: “The Government of Ireland made a decision to build the National Children’s Hospital and I was a part of the Government.”

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Simon Harris admitted that he was “unnecessarily pedantic and semantic” in his answer.

“The buck stops with me in relation to the National Children’s Hospital, let me be very clear about that," he said," he said.

“The point I was trying to make is [that] there's sometimes comments that are a little flippant, like one person signed off on the contract.

“The point I'm making is these things go through a very deliberative process.

"Lots of departments look at them; lots of bean counters - and I don't mean that disrespectfully - in different departments.

“There's a board, a National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, and then the Minister of the day, in this case was me, would bring a proposal to cabinet rather than sign a contract.

“That kind of missed the point, though.”

Women in politics

In response to recent ‘sexist’ remarks about Minister Helen McEntee, Mr Harris said he believes “there's an undertone” of misogyny towards “many women in politics”.

“I think some of the comments have been a bit inappropriate, quite frankly,” he said.

“I do think some of people need to check some of the language that they had used in recent days, in relation to some of the criticisms.”

Deportations

Elsewhere, the Taoiseach spoke about Fine Gael’s firmer immigration policy in their party manifesto.

“What I mean is the rules have to be applied, and they have to be applied in a more efficient way,” he said.

“So if you have a right to be here, that is great, immigration is a good thing.

“Have your right to be here, work, pay your way and get on with it.”

The Taoiseach said for people who “don't have a right to be here”, they need to “leave more quickly”.

He said “we need to show people” that deportations “do take place”.

“Voluntary deportation is always the most effective way, but we also need to be able to show people that, if voluntary doesn't work, there are mandatory deportations,” he said.

Mr Harris said there is “far too much of an attempt” to “dismiss the concerns communitites have” around immigration.

“Irish people want two things when it comes to migration, I believe, compassion and common sense,” he said.

“We're decent people - we shouldn't shut down people for raising issues about migration.

“What I'm very clearly saying is the rules will be applied without fear or favour.

“They'll be tightened up where appropriate and we'll work at a European level in relation to migration too.”

The Taoiseach also highlighted Fine Gael’s plan to “keep inside the 5% spending rule” and to keep money aside in a “time of economic uncertainty”.

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Main image shows Simon Harris outside the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk