ENDA KENNY WAS accused of belonging to a “cute hoor form of politics” as there were tense exchanges between the Taoiseach and Micheál Martin in the Dáil today.

Martin was speaking during Taoiseach’s questions when he raised the Fine Gael leader’s seeming reluctance to do a one-on-one TV3 debate during the next election.

“I’m prepared to do that debate, you’re not. You just sniggered there and you laughed,” the Fianna Fáil leader told Kenny.

He added:

You belong to a sort of a cute hoor form of politics that says, you know, ‘the more you duck and dive…’

The Ceann Comhairle interrupted to say it wasn’t the most parliamentary language, but Martin insisted it was, in fact, meant in the “most parliamentary way”.

He said that as someone who studied political science it was a “well-known phrase”.

Junior minister Seán Sherlock was particularly aggrieved at the language used and said Martin was displaying a “nasty streak” that was “most unbecoming of you”.

When it came to his response to Martin, Kenny was particularly withering:

I am not sure that kind of rambling deserves any response.

Later, Kenny told Martin said he was prepared to debate “with you all” before he added, while pointing at Gerry Adams:

Are you the leader of the opposition or is he the leader of the opposition?

He added: “As far as I’m concerned, I debate issues of politics everyday of the week, everyday of the week, and in some cases far more robustly than what you’re at here.

But, be that as it may, you have a particular slant that you want to follow at all times. I suppose you’re entitled to that.

Read: Enda Kenny says there’s no reason why anyone should be sleeping rough this Christmas

Read: Sinn Féin now insists coalition with Fianna Fáil is ‘extremely unlikely’

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