Germany's ambassador in Dublin said he regretted any misunderstanding caused by a deliberately provocative speech that had triggered a rebuke from Ireland's foreign ministry.The Department of Foreign Affairs said its top diplomat had called Ambassador Christian Pauls over his "inaccurate, misinformed and inappropriate" comments at an event attended by German businessmen in Dublin this month.
Media reported Pauls had criticised health, transport and public servants in Ireland.
European lawmaker Gay Mitchell, who attended the event, accused him of delivering about a dozen "appalling" jibes and attacking the Catholic Church. Pauls said his speeches were often provocative to encourage listeners to engage in question and answer (Q&A) sessions.
"I did make one mistake. I did not consider that there would be no subsequent Q&A session. No possibility to soften the initial impact. For this, I apologise," he said in a statement.
Pauls pointed out his speech had been in German and said he had not described Ireland as 'coarse' but did ask whether prosperity had made Irish society "a rougher, less caring" one.
On the Catholic Church, the ambassador said he spoke of its loss of moral authority due to various scandals but did not "have a go" at its once dominant position in Ireland.
Mitchell earlier told broadcaster RTE that while some of Pauls' remarks may have contained nuggets of truth, others had been "crazy" and painted a very bad image of Ireland.
"There was a certain amount of resentment at our success a sort of glee at the problems we have," Mitchell said.
Ireland, once the poor man of Europe, now ranks among the world's wealthiest nations.
But its creaking infrastructure has struggled to keep up after a decade of strong growth. Pauls said he had stressed the role played by the Irish people, as opposed to European subsidies, in Ireland's economic success.
References to the Great Famine of the 1840s and a history "sadder even than Polish history" had been intended to illustrate the full extent of past suffering.
Mitchell criticised Pauls for his tone and for not properly contextualising his view of modern Ireland.
"It would be like me starting off with the sinking of the Lusitania, going on to Stalingrad and then the Third Reich and giving that as a sort of potted history of the success of Germany," Mitchell said of events during the two world wars.
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