Paddy Holohan has been suspended from Sinn Féin over his claims that "scum" underage girls were having sex with men and blackmailing them

Mary Lou McDonald, the party leader, said that Mr Holohan's comments about underage girls were upsetting and "beyond offensive."

It emerged this week that Mr Holohan had suggested on an episode of his No Shame podcast that Mr Varadkar's blood ran to India, and that the person elected Taoiseach should be a family man. He subsequently said his comments were "misinterpreted".

On Friday morning, JOE revealed that Mr Holohan also suggested on the same podcast that "loads" of underage girls were having sex with men and then blackmailing them for sums of money up to €10,000. Sinn Féin announced on Friday that Mr Holohan had been suspended from the party with immediate effect, while a disciplinary process begins.

Speaking to reporters as part of her general election campaign, Mary Lou McDonald said that disciplinary action was now being taken against Mr Holohan in the wake of the story.

"I have moved immediately to the party's disciplinary procedures, all of that matter is now in hand and disciplinary action will be taken," Ms McDonald said.

"Obviously the comments themselves are offensive, they're beyond offensive. I actually find them upsetting. I'm very, very shocked at the comments made and the party's disciplinary procedure is now activated as we speak."

Mr Holohan was interviewing Terry McMahon, the film-maker, on his podcast when the pair started discussing female-only fitness classes. The Sinn Féin councillor, a former MMA fighter, suggested that he would be criticised for having male-only classes.

"I would be slated, 'he hates women,' they wouldn't say 'he hates men,'" Mr Holohan said.

Mr McMahon suggested some women who may be afraid or may have been attacked might want female-only classes, because there are some "scum men" out there.

Mr Holohan replied: "Now, saying that, I just want to stop you on that, there is some fucking scum women out there as well. And I just want to say to you, there’s a situation that I heard during the week... somebody was underage, the [other] person didn’t know they were underage, the girl pursued the guy. Got whatever she needed, had pictures, had videos, and then said 'I want 10 grand'.

"And that was, that wasn’t the first person, there was loads of them. What is that kind of situation is that that’s going on in society now? I have two sons. It petrifies me, petrifies me that somebody could turn around and say I’m literally just going to say that you attacked me if you don’t give me 10 grand. And people go, ‘no, that doesn’t happen’. It absolutely, I put my hand on my heart and tell you it does happen. And it is happening out there. So, what happens there?"

The pair went on to discuss the ethics of always believing victims of sexual violence. Mr Holohan suggested that men suffered from double standards, and said a woman could joke about chopping a man's dick off, but a man can't joke about his "bitch" getting into bed, and her annoying him so much that he "strangled her and boxed the head off her".

A spokesperson for Sinn Féin said: "These are not appropriate comments to make and are not the views of Sinn Féin."