LATEST: 'I haven't come to the US to answer to Nigel Farage' says Enda Kenny

Mr Kenny will have his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump in the White House on Thursday.

In a radio interview on Wednesday, former Ukip leader Mr Farage, a friend of the president, said the Taoiseach should start discussions in the Oval Office by saying sorry.

"How much more insulting can you be than to call someone racist?" Mr Farage told RTE.

"I think he needs to apologise."

Mr Kenny rejected Mr Farage's remarks.

He also insisted that his comments about Mr Trump referred to his use of language and not his personality.

He said it "did not follow" that characterising someone's language as racist meant you were accusing them of being a racist.

"Well I haven't come to America to answer to Nigel Farage," he said.

"I am the leader of the Irish government and very proud and privileged to be so.

"I am responding to an invitation sent by the president of the United States and I am very happy to go to the White House tomorrow and to continue the traditional connection between Ireland and the United States, symbolising the contribution the Irish people have made over many centuries, our place in America and the fact we want to continue with that.

"So I have nothing further to say in respect of comments made by Mr Farage."

Earlier: The former leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, thinks the first thing the Taoiseach Enda Kenny should do at his meeting with the President Donald Trump is apologise " for saying vile things about him".

Mr Farage Today with Sean O'Rourke that it might be a good start "to apologise to Donald Trump for saying vile things about him consistently during the campaign".

The former Ukip leader said "Trump won't have forgotten that. How much more insulting can you be than to call someone racist?

"I think he needs to apologise."

He speculated that President Trump may "let bygones be bygones", but he believes The Taoiseach is "wasting his time" trying to sell the President "the idea of independent sovereign states like Ireland giving away their ability to make their own laws to Mr. Juncker".

He said he thinks Mr Kenny might be surprised by what Mr Trump has to say to that.

Mr Farage has also said he is "frustrated" at the pace of triggering Article 50 to begin Britain's exit from the EU.

He said it could be June before they sit down with other the European leaders to start negotiations, and he does not think the British Government realises the strength of their position.

Thinking that the UK is not being "bold enough", Mr Farage said the UK is now "the biggest export market in the world for the Eurozone".

He also said the EU "needs free market access to us even more than we need it the other way around".

Mr Farage also thinks British Prime Minister Theresa May should call Nicola Sturgeon's bluff on her call for a Scottish referendum.

He said if he was British Prime Minister, he would say: "Yeah go on, have that referendum, call her bluff, get her to lose heavily and that would be the end of Scottish nationalism for many decades to come."

He said Ms Sturgeon "is in real trouble and Scottish separation now looks further away", as the Scottish people don't want the referendum.