Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has spoken out about controversial tweets sent by Fianna Fáil election candidate Lorraine Clifford Lee.
Old tweets from the by-election candidate in Dublin-Fingal emerged over the weekend.
The Senator came under fire for messages posted on social media in 2011 which made offensive references about Travellers.
She said a 'knacker' had stolen her car - and that some clothes she had seen looked like they were from a 'Traveller wedding'.
She also tweeted about how a 'black Brazilian dwarf with ginger hair' had sat next to her on the bus.
Ms Clifford Lee has since apologised for her comments, and is due to meet representatives from Pavee Point to apologise in person tomorrow.
However, the Taoiseach said today that this does not go far enough.
Mr Varadkar said he was "disappointed with the response from Fianna Fáil so far", saying it was "inadequate".
"Those were tweets that were sent by a qualified solicitor, a woman in her 30s, someone actively involved in Fianna Fáil at the time,” he said.
“Just describing them as inappropriate isn’t enough. We should say what they were, they were misogynistic towards women, racist towards Travellers and classist and also body shaming.
Fianna Fáil's justice spokesman Jim O'Callaghan defended Ms Clifford Lee earlier this week, saying her tweets were "inappropriate" and "offensive, particularly to Travelling people".
However, he said the "silly statements" should not mean the end of her political career.
