Acknowledgment acknowledged, but Kenny annoyed that it's anodyne

SKETCH:THEY ALMOST made it without any raised voices. The Tánaiste almost got through the Order of Business without getting irritated.

But, whether it was the sunshine or economic apocalypse fatigue, the provocation barely registered on the Opposition’s outrage radar.

One potential verbal landmine passed off without incident when Labour leader Eamon Gilmore called on the Tánaiste “in the national interest” to acknowledge that the two main Opposition parties voluntarily accepted the reduction of the deficit to 3 per cent of GDP by 2014.

Enda Kenny took the same view and was not happy with what he called the Taoiseach’s “very anodyne statement” about the matter. He was equally unhappy that “Government spin doctors are now attempting to lock in Opposition parties to their methods”. The Government, he warned, “should not try to spin a situation in which it wants to lock in every party in the country in the failed strategy”.

Both leaders were obviously expecting evasive tactics and the Labour leader jumped in when Mary Coughlan began her reply.

“It has been acknowledged by my colleague the Minister for Finance” was as far as she got before Mr Gilmore intervened. “No it was not. He denied it,” he retorted sharply.

Ms Coughlan told him “that has been acknowledged and I will acknowledge it again if it has not been heard”.

She only got irked when Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton asked about the publication of the pre-budget plan, usually done in October.

The Tánaiste said it would be included in the four-year budget plan in November. Government answers in the Dáil rarely suit the Labour TD and they rarely get finished before she jumps back in. Yesterday was no exception.

Then Leas Cheann Comhairle Brendan Howlin intervened to tell the Labour deputy leader to “allow the Tánaiste to reply”.

“I can be helpful or I can be in order,” Ms Coughlan said rather snootily.

The Leas Cheann Comhairle suggested it would be better to be “helpfully in order”.

Concerns were raised about the delay from 2011 to 2012 in the opening of the long-promised cystic fibrosis unit at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin. Enda Kenny said it was “literally a matter of life and death”.

Labour health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan would raise the issue at the end of the day on the adjournment of the Dáil and appealed for Mary Harney to be in the chamber herself to answer. But asking the Minister for Health to answer an adjournment issue in the Dáil is like asking Enda Kenny to resign over a bad poll result.

And so it proved. Minister of State for Health John Moloney, who would probably win the prize for being the Minister who replies to most adjournment issues, said the clear commitment was for the unit’s completion in 2012.