Brian COwen is not the first politician to issue an expletive.
May 2004:Then minister for defence Michael Smith, standing in for the taoiseach in the Dáil, was being put under pressure during Order of Business by the opposition.
"Let them, f*** it, we'll say no more," he said to a government frontbench colleague as he sat back in his seat. He was not aware that the microphone was still on.
December 2005:The then ceann comhairle Rory O'Hanlon apologised for exclaiming "for frig's sake" while trying to bring order to a rowdy dispute in the Dáil chamber.
April 1995:Then taoiseach John Bruton became annoyed during an interview with a local radio reporter with 96FM in Cork. After telling her to stop recording, he said: "I am sick of answering questions about the f***ing peace process." He later apologised to the reporter.
October 1992:During the general election campaign, then taoiseach Albert Reynolds described a claim that he had never spoken to PD leader Des O'Malley outside the Cabinet as "crap, pure crap" and as "crap, total crap". His press secretary Seán Duignan later recalled in his book One Spin on the Merry-Go-Roundthat the comments had cost Reynolds dearly in the subsequent election campaign.
- Harry McGee, Political Staff