Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein have hit out at the Taoiseach after he admitted making private representations on behalf of Donald Trump over a wind farm application in the same week that his government issued a circular seeking to ban councillors from discussing planning applications.

Fianna Fail Councillor Paul McAuliffe said what Mr Leo Varadkar has done is a "craven attempt to pretend that planning is in the gift of politicians".

He said: "What's even more astounding is that he made the remarks only days after his Cabinet colleague Minister Eoghan Murphy issued a circular to all Local Authorities which banned Councillors and officials from discussing planning applications at area council meetings.

"The circular states that discussing such applications ‘could convey an erroneous impression to the public of the role of elected members in the statutory process for deciding on planning applications. Having regard to the foregoing, Part 3 planning applications should not be discussed at Municipal District/Area Committee and/or Council meetings prior to the making of decisions on them and the participation of local authority officials in any such discussions is not appropriate in the circumstances.

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"This circular has caused anger amongst Councillors who are now accusing the Minister of trying to interfere in local democracy by preventing local authority staff from assisting Councillors and communities from understanding the technical details of large planning applications.

"This isn't about conveying erroneous impressions to the public, it’s about letting Councillors carry out their role and assisting communities to participate in the planning process."

Sinn Féin TD and Justice spokesperson Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said: "I cannot fathom how an Taoiseach would almost brag about a story where he rang a local council as a Government minister to make representations on behalf of an American billionaire businessman.

"The planning application has no mention of the then Minister or his Department lodging a formal complaint, which indicates to me an awareness that this was not an appropriate action by a member of Government. It is entirely unacceptable for a Minister to be engaging in back channel negotiations in the private business interests of Donald Trump or anyone else.

"An Taoiseach needs to immediately make clear what the nature of these representations on behalf of President Trump were and release any correspondence he may have in regards to the matter."

(CD/MH)