Fine Gael chief whip Paul Kehoe is standing over comments he made last week, when he said that Mayo farmer Pádraig Nally was right to shoot dead a man he found on his property.
Nally was jailed for six years for the manslaughter of Traveller John Ward. Mr Kehoe told a public meeting in Bunclody last Thursday: "Let me say, he was a victim, and if I was Pádraig Nally I think I would have done exactly the very same thing as well."
Yesterday, his comments were criticised on local radio .
Mr Kehoe responded by saying he meant what he said and was not going to backtrack on his comments. "People are living in fear in their own homes, like Pádraig Nally was," he told South East Radio's Straight Talk programme. "People are totally afraid of being in the same position as Pádraig Nally."
"I feel very strongly on this, and I feel sorry for people who are living in the same way as Pádraig Nally did," he stated.
