DÁIL SKETCH:Certainly there was no flirting in the Dáil yesterday between Fianna Fáil's Mary O'Rourke and Labour's Emmet Stagg as they engaged in some good old-fashioned heckling, which morphed into something of a gender row, writes MARIE O'HALLORAN.
O'Rourke had been speaking during the debate on cancer screening and praised the roll-out of BreastCheck, "a humane system which women understand", and which she described as "marvellous".
Labour's Jan O'Sullivan gently pointed out that "not everybody has access to the service".
Emmet Stagg emphasised her point emphatically. "It has not been rolled out," he stressed.
When acting chairman Johnny Brady called on Stagg not to interrupt O'Rourke because no one interrupted him, he said a little louder "the BreastCheck service had not been rolled out".
The Westmeath TD would not be intimidated. She had already heard him "wax lyrical" and "I ask him to observe the rules of democracy and allow me to speak. I don't care how long it took to roll out the service, it is working satisfactorily."
Still the Labour man intoned "it has not been rolled out yet".
That was enough to get the Westmeath woman ready to cut him off. "While I have experienced this type of carry-on many times, Deputy Stagg's interruptions are disgraceful. No one dared interrupt him whereas he believes he can interrupt me because I am a woman."
Ouch! A cutting remark from O'Rourke is often enough to put off the strongest barrage. However, Emmet Stagg is a bit long in the tooth for intimidation, and retorted: "I interrupted the deputy because she is speaking rubbish."
Cue O'Rourke: "In my time, I have heard a great deal of rubbish from that gentleman - he is full of it."
After which the Fianna Fáil deputy went back to praising BreastCheck as a "professional, finely tuned, wonderful service". But then she, too, questioned the levels of access and asked to be told "the reason women aged 65 years and over are deemed to be invisible and denied access to the service?"
Usually on a Thursday the Tánaiste stands in for the Taoiseach in the Dáil. Yesterday, however, it was former tánaiste Mary Harney who took the Order of Business and seemed to have a tranquillizing effect on the Opposition. Apart of course from Bernard Durkan. The Fine Gael TD was like a wind-up toy, repeatedly intoning "hear hear" to everything his deputy party leader Richard Bruton had to say.
Bruton asked the Minister for Health for clarity on the precise Government intentions on the National Development Plan and specifically on the commitment on computer technology facilities for schools. "Hear, hear" said Bernard.
Would the Minister allow time to make a statement on it? "Hear, hear" said Bernard again.
And again, and again.
Maybe, after all the rows about who can shout louder, it's a politer form of interruption.