A debate on the economy and the Government's performance during the past year turned into a war of words as the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, excoriated the Green Party and the disclosures about Mr Ciaran Cuffe's shares in oil companies.
He added that "Ireland needs Green economics like lettuce needs slugs".
Mr O'Donoghue said the "so-called twin pillars of Green integrity have the substance, rigidity and moral consistency of jellied sausages". He said the Green Party had "shown itself to be ethically two-faced and economically promiscuous".
Mr Cuffe protested that "he did not really know what was going on". "This could not be less credible if it emanated from a bishop in a brothel," Mr O'Donoghue said of the Dún Laoghaire TD's shares, valued at €1.3 million and inherited from his mother.
The Green's finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, said Mr O'Donoghue's contribution was a "bankrupt statement of a Government that doesn't know what it's about".
His "ignorance of economics is as much as his ignorance of horticulture". Mr Boyle said he would not claim any moral high ground for his party and there was no need to because "my party is not guilty of any sins of commission. None of our members have committed illegal acts. My party is not guilty of any sins of omission. We have not been forced, dragged and screaming to tribunals to release information that should have been released on the floor of this House." The Greens "are not the party of blank cheques. We are not the party of meat and bonemeal being fed illegally. We are not the party of predator farmers. We are not the party of Liam Lawlor."
In one of the few contributions to focus on the Labour Party private members' motion, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said the Government had obtained a mandate, not for what it promised at the election, but because of its performance as a result of which people had money in their pockets. He said the Government would fulfil its manifesto.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, also criticised the Green Party for saying it would increase Corporation Tax to 17 per cent, a move which it later reduced to 15 per cent. All the Opposition parties had opposed the tax revolution that brought unemployment below 5 per cent, he said.
However, Mr Richard Bruton, Fine Gael's finance spokesman, accused Mr McDowell of "self delusion". Where was the Minister when VAT increased twice in the past year and when inflation eroded €500 from every household's income, he asked. The Government defeated the Labour motion by 69 votes to 54.
