COMEDIAN Tommy Tiernan has walked himself into controversy with a shocking anti-Semitic tirade in which he jokes that he would have "got" 10 or 12 million Jews during the Holocaust.

At a question and answer session during the recent Electric Picnic festival, the comedian launched an expletive-filled outburst against members of the Jewish community.

Tiernan said: "But these Jews, these f*****g jews come up to me. F*****g Christ killing b*****ds. F*****g six million? I would have got 10 or 12 million out of that. No f*****g problem. Two at a time, they would have gone. Hold hands, get in there. Leave us your teeth and your glasses."

Jewish Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter branded the comments as "demented" and called Tiernan's observations "a disgusting and unacceptable outburst".

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, Shatter said: "He has quite clearly brought to the surface his own prejudices and what he said is more a commentary on his own personal prejudices and perspectives. Rather than this being a comic presentation, it sounds more like the deranged, demented ramblings of a complete fool which I don't think reasonable people would remotely take seriously. Quite clearly what he had to say goes beyond the bounds of anything that is acceptable and certainly doesn't deserve being described as comedy."

Before making the remarks Tiernan said a comedy stage "is about allowing whatever lunacy is inside you to come out in a special protected environment where people know that nothing they say is being taken seriously".