THURSDAY’S LEADERS’ QUESTIONS has become famous for the titanic clashes between Mary Lou McDonald and Joan Burton in the Dáil chamber.
But it was the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams standing in for his deputy today as he put a series of questions to the Tánaiste over the ongoing controversy surrounding NAMA’s sale of its Northern Ireland property portfolio.
But Burton appeared to be primarily interested in scoring political points against Adams, throwing a lot of shade and verbal barbs at the Louth TD throughout her lengthy answers.
Adams put four questions to Burton, including asking whether the government would establish a Commission of Investigation into the management and operations of NAMA.
Burton effectively said there was an examination of the allegations already underway in Stormont.
But then, somewhat bizarrely, she sought to link the debate around property prices now and before the crash with Adams’s own living arrangements.
I believe Deputy Adams has told Members previously that he owns a residential house, as well as a holiday home, and I do not know whether he has another house in the Republic.
She wasn’t finished there:
However, I would argue strongly that before the crash, quite a lot of houses rose to heights of being worth approximately half a million euro, certainly in the Dublin area. I do not know whether the Deputy has a house there.
So pleased were her Labour colleagues, the party’s fact check Twitter account retweeted this:
By the time the Labour leader concluded her lengthy response, Adams was not satisfied and repeated his question, asking for a judicial inquiry to be set up.
So, please, Tánaiste, would you support the establishment of a Commission of Investigation into the management and operations of NAMA?
Rather than answering the question, Burton decided to ask some pointed questions of her own while again bizarrely raising something completely unrelated to the topic that was being discussed.
Well, eh, first of all, could I ask you sincerely, is there anything that you in anyway regard as being good in the Republic of Ireland? Is there anything? Because you told us previously that you didn’t need to know about economics and I noticed the other day you did an interview where you said actually you knew loads about economics.
Not content with the observation on Adams’s grasp of economics, she threw in an old reliable – the IRA membership taunt:
I suspect you also know a lot about governance, including of organisations that you were never even a member of. But that’s another issue…
Indeed it is. Sinn Féin wasn’t impressed:
But with an election looming politicians will take any opportunity they can to score political points over the opposition.
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