The president of the Labour Party, Michael D Higgins, has described as "fairly daft" the reciprocal visits by his party leader, Pat Rabbitte, and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny to each other's parliamentary party think-ins before the autumn Dáil term.
Mr Higgins, the party's foreign affairs spokesman and TD for Galway West, said: "I thought that was a fairly daft adventure, to be honest. We weren't exactly dealing with a schism in the Catholic Church with cardinals having to kiss one another's rings and make up."
In an interview with Village magazine, he added: "What it was was a piece of symbolism. Pat is from Mayo (the Fine Gael meeting took place in the west of Ireland) and I'm sure Enda has been to Cork (the Labour venue) before."
Asked about the cut and thrust of politics and about possible irreconcilable ideologies in relation to the proposed Labour-Fine Gael coalition, he accepted that pragmatism is often the irresistible option and said the debate in the party "is about a series of issues".
"There's a whole raft of issues we do not agree on - boot camps, drunk tanks - but it's amazing how the job of holding power sharpens the mind," he said.
A spokesman for the Labour Party said last night that everyone knows Mr Higgins's views and respects them.
"The party voted by a majority of four to one to talk with Fine Gael and people are entitled to hold their views."
The spokesman rejected suggestions that the fact that Labour published four policy documents in the last month on its own, and not with Fine Gael, is a reflection of a shift in party thinking in relation to possible Labour-Fine Gael coalition, given its recent poor showing in the polls.
The party yesterday published its pre-Budget priorities paper.