Bryan Dobson with economist Ronan Lyons on the Six One News last night

Bryan Dobson with economist Ronan Lyons on the Six One News last night

Updated 23.08pm

RTÉ’S SIX ONE News presenter Bryan Dobson has said that he “never meant to cause offence” when he referred to to protestors as “idiots” during a live interview last night.

Dobson was interviewing economist Ronan Lyons about property prices but cut him short as he was answering a question as protestors against bondholder payments came into view behind him.

“We’ll I’ll tell you what Ronan, I am going to stop that there because the idiots behind you are a bit of distraction so we’ll try and get rid of those and come back to you,” Dobson said.

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His comments sparked considerable controversy on Twitter today with calls for him to apologise for the remarks.

In a statement issued through RTÉ this evening, Dobson said: “I never meant to cause offence with my remarks last night which were in reference to the interruption of an interview during a live broadcast rather than the topic of any protest.”