The newly-ordained Bishop of Cork and Ross has said we can all learn from this week’s controversy over the Taoiseach’s 'sinning priest' remarks.

Leo Varadkar has apologised for comparing the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to a parish priest who preaches against sin before “secretly going behind the altar and engaging in any amount of sin himself.”

On Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh this morning, Bishop Fintan Gavin said the comments were “unfortunate because he offended a lot of people.”

“The people that, maybe, he referred to subtly – those victims of abuse, people who have really suffered – when they hear the thing being trivialised like that, in some ways it doesn’t show the respect we should have for them,” he said.

“So at all kinds of levels, I think if he could have that conversation again, he would have it differently.

“I am sure he regrets it; he has said sorry so I think it is a matter of us, hopefully, learning from it.

“We have to be very careful that the language we use is respectful of people.

“It can happen in the heat of the moment but we can cause an awful lot of offence by using the wrong language at the wrong time.”

He said the “kind of throw away trite manner” in which the comment was made was unfortunate but noted that “he came back very quickly and he apologised to anyone who he would have hurt.”

“He gave an honest apology and I think, at the end of the day, we all say things in heat of the moment that we shouldn’t say,” he said.

“I think you accept an apology and you move on and you hopefully learn from it.”

On Thursday the Taoiseach said he made the comment during a “rather bitter and personal debate” in the Dáil and apologised to “a lot of people who I never intended to offend.”

You can listen to the full interview with Bishop Gavin here: