Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Damien English has said Fine Gael and others should look at their vetting procedures for election candidates.
Mr English said his party is "sticking by" its candidate for the Wexford by-election, Verona Murphy, despite strong criticism of the Taoiseach for continuing to back her after her comments linking immigrants to terrorists.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Mr English said people will not be voting for Ms Murphy based on those comments, but on other positions she has held over the years.
"We are sticking by her because she apologised, admitted her comments were completely wrong, were ill-informed.
"She has now informed herself much better, she is much more deeply educated on this issue and her comments are now corrected," he said.
Election candidates are chosen through a combination of "the party hierarchy and local members", he said, and in that sense they are vetted because they are known for years beforehand.
"I do agree that all of us, all parties, need to look at our vetting procedures, I've no issue with that," he said.
The panel discusses offensive comments of the FF & FG candidates on this morning's #rtetwip. Repeat tonight on @RTEOne at 23:45. #rtepolitics #byelections2019. pic.twitter.com/1fner717xg
— The Week in Politics (@rtetwip) November 24, 2019
Speaking on the same programme, Fianna Fáil's Stephen Donnelly compared the Fine Gael by-election campaign to the campaign of US President Donald Trump.
"Remember when he was running and he said that Mexicans were murderers and rapists and they were coming across the border and everyone was horrified.
"Essentially, as far as I am concerned, that is the sort of language we are now hearing from a Fine Gael candidate."
Mr Donnelly said Ms Murphy's comments were "very different" to other controversial tweets made by the Fianna Fáil candidate in Dublin Fingal, Lorraine Clifford-Lee.
"What Lorraine said was insulting and wrong and was ten years ago on Twitter when she was a private citizen. She apologised to those who were offended and critically they have accepted her apology," he said.
.@loreillysf speaking on the "offensive" comments of Lorraine Clifford Lee. Repeat tonight at 23:45 on @RTEOne #rtetwip #rtepolitics #byelections. pic.twitter.com/wkET1R0Vgn
— The Week in Politics (@rtetwip) November 24, 2019
Sinn Féin's Louise O'Reilly said it was "outrageous that this sort of dog whistle politics is being ignored and facilitated".
She said that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil should look at the comments of their candidates and if they reflect the values of the party, back them and if not, sack them.
She said Ms Clifford Lee's comments were "classist and snobbish".
"She didn't just offend members of the Travelling community, she made comments that were offensive to women, she made comments that were offensive to common people, as she called them, who shop in Lidl. How dare she say that!"
Rise TD Paul Murphy said Ms Murphy should have been removed from the ticket, and Fine Gael's failure to do so has sent out the wrong message.
"She should have been dropped from the ticket if Fine Gael were serious about addressing the issue of racism," he said.
