Coalition has no sense of direction - Higgins

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was compared to the ill-fated Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty in a scathing attack on the Government by Socialist deputy Joe Higgins.

In a Dáil contribution laced with humour, the Dublin West TD also described the Progressive Democrats as the "Political Dysfunctionals", and compared the Tánaiste and the Minister for Justice with two junior GAA teams who had been at each other's throats for years in an attempt to avoid relegation.

He asked what hope there was of resolving the critical problems of health and infrastructure in the year before the election, when "your Government has a sense of direction that lies somewhere between Wanderly Wagon and the ancient tribes of Israel wandering in the desert with no Moses and no burning bush".

To laughter even from the Government benches, the Dublin West TD went on: "You have a mutiny on the Fianna Fáil ship. When the normally mild-mannered deputy Johnny Brady begins to exude a whiff of political sulphur, you know that there is trouble."

Mr Brady responded to some laughter that "I never ended up in the Joy", in reference to Mr Higgins's time in Mountjoy during the bin charges dispute.

The Socialist deputy continued that deputies John McGuinness (FF, Carlow-Kilkenny) and Barry Andrews (FF, Dún Laoghaire) "are beginning to adopt the confident air of a Fletcher Christian. "Pretty soon, like the ill-fated Captain Bligh whose ill-temper at least you certainly displayed last week, you might find yourself adrift."

In reference to the PDs, he called them the "Political Dysfunctionals" and said that the "digging match between the Minister for justice and the Tánaiste would do justice to two junior GAA teams down the country who've been at each other's throats for years, trying to stave off relegation".

He added: "It's a good job that the two casualties are only bruised egos. Imagine if the two of them finished up in an A&E together with only one trolley available."

Highlighting Government progress in a number of areas, however, Mr Ahern said that the Government had taken 250,000 people out of consistent poverty.

A&E was the one part of the health service on which the Government had an enormous amount to do, the Taoiseach said.

A detailed programme was in place of improvements on service and infrastructure, "on which the Tánaiste and I will work diligently through to improve the 14 or 15 hospitals in difficulty out of the 34 or 35 that are there".

Mr Higgins claimed the Government had "disastrously failed" on infrastructure for burgeoning communities. In Laytown, Co Meath, 89 children did not have schools to go to in three months time for the start of the new school year.