Daggers at 40 paces in the Dail.

(From Irish Independent)

As the Oireachtas resumed this week after its summer recess, Mary Minihan looks back at some of the good, the bad and the ugly spats of recent years

TDs spent the long summer break toughening their hides in advance of the Dail's return to business this week. While the session may have begun gently enough, there is never any place in Leinster House for the thin-skinned.

Rest assured that before Christmas, scandals will surface, coalition tensions will emerge and promises will be broken. These are the long-established facts of political life in Ireland and elsewhere.

The majority of deputies will not attempt to politely persuade their critics with carefully constructed, intellectual arguments.

Most prefer to resort to good, old-fashioned mud-slinging and sometimes vicious opponent-baiting as a look back over the last eight years reveals.

SPATS Dail-watchers know that hell hath no fury like a minister under attack. Back in November 2001, the Opposition was demanding Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sack his then Public Enterprise Minister Mary O'Rourke.