Social media reacts to newly-elected councillor who says Irish women not ‘breeding’ enough

A newly-elected councillor in Co Kildare has raised eyebrows outlining his agenda, saying he wants to “look after the women of Ireland” because “they are not having enough children”.

The Independent councillor was elected without reaching the quota following a four day count in the Newbridge LEA, with 1,419 votes. He was the last councillor in the country to be elected to a local authority.

The builder from Newbridge claimed that Irish people were in danger of dying out because Irish women were not ‘breeding’ enough. He has since defended his comments, saying: “I'm from a farming background.”

However, his comments upon being elected were: “If we don’t have women breeding, we die out as a breed. We don’t want that to happen.

“Our women are only breeding 1.5 or 1.6 children. That's shocking for an Irish woman. 

“They are not having enough children. I want to incentivise that, free childcare to have children and to give them [mothers] tax incentives.”

Social media users have reacted to Cllr McDonnell’s comments, with one saying: “As a Newbridge native, I’m disgusted this guy was elected. He shouldn’t be given any platform to express his archaic views.”

Another person said: “As a Newbridge person I am really ashamed of having this guy as one of our reps.”

Others simply described Cllr McDonnell as being a ‘plonker’, ‘gobshite’ and ‘nutter’, with one X (formerly Twitter) user commenting: “Goodness! Breeding sounds a bit prize heifer. Couples having children sounds far better!”

Cllr McDonnell, who describes himself as an ‘Independent Nationalist’, outlined that he will be contesting in the next general election. 

“This [local election success] is a stepping stone to the general election and my agenda going forward will be to look after the women of Ireland and ensure that they have more children,” he said.