Every day Bertie Ahern has been in the Dail since the Ned O'Keeffe resignation two weeks ago, the Opposition has harried him for a statement, and with Michael Noonan and Ruairi Quinn trying to establish dominance, there have been some unseemly rows. Each time they corner Bertie, say the Opposition, he just mutters into his tie. On Wednesday, Quinn called the Taoiseach a coward on the Order of Business and another row broke out, with the Ceann Comhairle, Seamus Pattison, and Government deputies demanding he withdraw the remark. Quinn eventually did. So what could he have called him? There isn't much choice. The regulations say a member should not be called a coward, a murderer, a blackmailer, a perjurer, a smuggler, a rogue, a liar, a drunk or much else besides. Political charges are in order but personal charges are not. "Members," the rules say, "must not be thin-skinned in relation to political remarks". But it is disorderly to call a member a brat, a buffoon, a chancer, a communist, a corner boy, a guttersnipe, a hypocrite, a rat or a yahoo. "The reference to `handbagging', particularly with reference to a lady member of the House, has been deemed to be unparliamentary."
So there you have it.