A war of words has broken out between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte over the abandonment of plans to reintroduce third-level fees.
Mr Rabbitte issued a challenge to Mr Ahern to debate issues relating to social disadvantage after the Taoiseach said Labour "doesn't give two hells" about access to education for the disadvantaged.
When questioned this afternoon about the apparent Government U-turn which saw the allocation of euro42 million to help people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds into third-level education, Mr Ahern said journalists were chasing the wrong story.
"The real story here is how so many people elected to office in this country couldn't give two hells about disadvantaged education," he said, adding that he was referring particularly to the Labour Party.
He said Fine Gael was a right-wing party "anyway" but questioned Labour's left-wing credentials after they objected to the Minister of Education, Mr Dempsey's outline proposal to re-introduce third-level fees for those with high incomes.
Mr Rabitte described the Taoiseach's remarks as "incoherent sniping" that showed Fianna Fáil's "panic at the growing public anger over their cutbacks and broken promises".
The Labour challenged Mr Ahern to debate on any issue relating disadvantage in any forum. "Let him now stop sheltering behind 30 second sound bites, as he has been doing for six years."