Bertie's foes let another skeleton rattle by

It was a debate rich in irony, if little else. Outlining what recent contacts he had with the judges in the Sheedy case, the Taoiseach told of meeting Hugh O'Flaherty at a function last year in St Michan's Church - long famous for its mummified crusader.

For anyone suspecting there were more skeletons in the Sheedy closet, this was an unexpected bonus. Amazingly, the Opposition let it pass.

Maybe even more ironic was the five-word text of the Taoiseach's submission on Sheedy to the Department of Justice. "Justice - What is the Story?" was what Mr Ahern wrote. Socialist TD Joe Higgins wondered if the Taoiseach realised what a profound comment this was on the state of the legal system in Ireland.

The story was different justice for different classes, Joe implied, and the Taoiseach might have agreed. After all, when you come from the north-side and you have a Dublin accent, it doesn't do to get caught near the scene of a crime.

Ruairi Quinn rammed home this point when he said Bertie Ahern had been acting "like a man with a brick outside a jeweller's window". And even Inspector Higgins was ready to make an arrest. There were "Fianna Fail fingerprints" all over the Sheedy case, he told the Taoiseach: "Wouldn't ordinary people be justified in thinking this was a Fianna Fail job?"

John Bruton reminded the Taoiseach of his comments to reporters on Monday night, when he appeared to imply the Tanaiste was not telling the truth. And even as Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim Higgins studied a photocopy of a tabloid newspaper story headlined "Bertie the Groveller", the Taoiseach had no choice but to grovel. He had spoken "fairly sharply" on Monday, he admitted, and he had been wrong.

Ruairi Quinn accused Mr Ahern of being "snarling and petulant" but the Labour leader was in belligerent mood himself. In the course of asking whether Ms Harney could now believe she had the truth, he was heckled by Fianna Fail's Dick Roche, who redirected the question at him: "Do you have a clue what's going on?"

But if Dick Roche was clue-less, so too, according to the Labour leader, was the Minister for Justice. He had heard him on Radio Kerry on Tuesday, claiming never to have read the Sheedy file. "If that's true," Mr Quinn said to the Taoiseach, "you should fire him now."