A newly elected Social Democrats TD has said she regrets any offence caused by a number of old Twitter posts, including one where she called Pope Francis the leader of a paedophile ring.

Cork South-West TD Holly Cairns posted a tweet in March 2013 on the day Pope Francis was elected where she said she would get an abortion “for every minute of air time taken up on the papal conclave”. Three days later Ms Cairns wrote: “New paedophile-ring-leader Describes Gay Adoption as ‘Child Abuse’,” with a link to an article that is no longer online.

In another tweet in December 2012, Ms Cairns posted: “The pope is gonna get so cyber bullied, can’t wait #pope #vatican.” This was in response to the setting up of an official Twitter account for the papacy.

The tweets were posted and before she became involved in politics.

Contacted for comment yesterday, Ms Cairns said she had deleted many of the tweets in question.

“I was much younger and they weren’t the best-advised tweets,” she told the Independent.ie.

“I regret any offence caused. I took them down for that reason. I am really sorry for any offence caused.”