DEPUTY PETER MATHEWS has apologised for what he described as a “very clumsy sentence” on Tonight with Vincent Browne earlier this week.

On his official Twitter account, Deputy Mathews said today:

His office confirmed that it was the Deputy himself who tweeted the comment.

The pro-life Fine Gael TD was referring to an interview with Browne on TV3 earlier this week, where he was speaking about the proposed abortion legislation that at the time was under discussion by Fine Gael and Labour.

During the interview he said “But sure we’re all going to end up dead anyway”, which drew considerable criticism. He made the comment when asked if he thought it was an acceptable risk for a woman to be allowed to continue with a pregnancy even if that pregnancy would damage her health.

The government agreed last night on the heads of bill for the proposed Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, which will soon go before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.