THE GOVERNMENT chief whip Tom Kitt has rejected claims by Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore that Fianna Fáil backbenchers sniggered in the Dáil on Thursday when he spoke about the plight of a 76-year-old woman who had spent several days on a trolley at the Mater hospital after suffering a heart attack.
Mr Kitt said he understood that one, two or three TDs had made "an interruption" but they had not sniggered while Mr Gilmore was speaking.
Their interruption was on a procedural matter and not in relation to the woman's case, he insisted.
"It would be dishonest to interpret this as Fianna Fáil members sniggering," he said.
He added that the members of his party were as concerned as Opposition TDs about the case of Peg McEntee, who finally got a bed at the Mater hospital on Friday, after more than 60 hours on a trolley in A&E.
"We are all very upset at this case . . . it's a very disturbing case," Mr Kitt said.
Mr Gilmore had said he heard some "laughter and sniggering" from three or four deputies on the backbenches when he was speaking about her case and he was quite taken aback by it.
He said it portrayed a lack of concern and a lack of seriousness about the issue under discussion.
Mrs McEntee's son Eamon said he was disgusted at suggestions that backbenchers had laughed when his mother's plight was being highlighted in the Dáil. He said the Government parties had been in power so long they seemed to have lost touch with the people they were supposed to represent.