While leaders’ questions in the Dail is noted for stormy exchanges and political hectoring, the session of “taoiseach’s questions” that follows is usually a formal and staid affair. After two ill-tempered exchanges on leaders’ questions on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, however, two of the Dail’s most prominent figures let the disharmony spill over into the usually civilised exchanges at taoiseach’s question time on Wednesday afternoon. Having compared Mary Lou McDonald to Marine Le Pen of the French far right, the taoiseach Leo Varadkar objected to the Sinn Fein deputy leader’s “total disrespect” for other speakers, saying the only time she did not use a script was when she was interrupting someone. The bad-tempered spat concluded with McDonald walking directly up to the taoiseach on…

Source: The Times September 30, 2017 22:52 UTC