Pat Rabbitte gets stuck into Bertie

According to reports in the Irish Times today Mr Rabbitte told the Taoiseach that "nobody would believe what you say. You're only short of playing cricket on some spare patch of ground. You jump on the bandwagon for anything that becomes popular. The only thing you recycle is other people's ideas."

Pat mad the remarks in repsonce to FF's complaints of auction politics which were decried by Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan last week to a press conference where he was "shocked", "aghast" and "alarmed" by Opposition tax proposals, when on Saturday the Taoiseach unleashed a "Niagara of promises" including 53 commitments, costing €300 million for each of the 30 minutes of the Taoiseach's speech.

Pat asked Bertie to give the costs of the FF giveaway.

Pat called on Bertie to "answer the questions for a change. What is the cost of this Niagara of destruction?" He added that "a woman came up to me on the street yesterday and told me that she was watching the Taoiseach on Saturday night. She said she thought the Taoiseach's nose would come through the screen. She said she did not believe a word you said."