Taoiseach finds his groove in County Roscommon

Taoiseach Simon Harris spent several hours at Lough Key Forest Park in Boyle on Saturday afternoon where hundreds of festival goers were enjoying the music at the Night and Day Festival.

With big names like Damian Dempsey and The Undertones on stage on Saturday, the Taoiseach took time to enjoy the music, meet festival goers and address the media.  

He was greeted on arrival at Lough Key by the Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council, Cllr Paschal Fitzmaurice, Coillte representatives, festival organisers and Roscommon's Tourism Officer Lisa Joy.

The festival, which has attracted several thousand people over the course of the weekend continues today Sunday with some big names like BellX1.

Speaking to the media the Taoiseach admitted he was frustrated over an ongoing controversy in the Defence Forces.

It comes after earlier this week Simon Harris stated that information on how many serving members had criminal convictions was not immediately available to him.

The Defence Forces later said a total of 68 members have been convicted or are before the courts charged with criminal offences.

Speaking to reporters in Boyle Mr Harris said: “I think it’s fair to say that I did express a kind of visible frustration during the week – and that was motivated from a place of good because I had watched what Natasha O’Brien had been going through.

“Zero tolerance is not a political slogan, zero tolerance is cultural change we need to bring about in Ireland.” Mr Harris said: “We’re not yet where we need to be culturally in relation to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, and the last couple of weeks have been a stark reminder of that.

“There are many thousands of good men and women in Oglaigh na hEireann, and they do us proud at home and abroad – and it’s for them we have to get this right.”