TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS appeared to be enjoying himself in the Dáil today when he got the opportunity to slag Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson for his Supervalu faux pas.

On Tuesday, Sinn Féin were forced to explain their embarrassing mistake after Pearse Doherty and a number of other Sinn Féin TDs repeatedly referred in the Dáil to SuperValu being owned by United Natural Foods Inc., a US-based firm rather than the Irish Musgrave Group. 

The party put the mistake down to “human error” due to a search by Sinn Féin staff into Google Finance turning up a different ‘Supervalu’ company based in the US.

During Leaders’ Questions today, Harris made sure not to spare Doherty’s blushes. 

During a discussion on the cost of living, the Fine Gael leader saw his opportunity to strike and took it. 

“You spend a lot of your political career standing up here saying: ‘you don’t get it over here. You don’t understand, you’re out of touch. 

“You know what I know? I know who owns Supervalu. And it’s not an American multinational,” the Tánaiste jeered across the Dáil at a glum-faced Sinn Féin, receiving whoops of approval from the Government benches.

“I know who owns Supervalu, they sponsor the GAA, they sponsor the Tidy Towns. They’re in towns and villages across the country, they’re a proud Irish company. And you thought, you thought they were owned by an American multinational!

“And you want Paschal Donohoe’s job?,” the Tánaiste said with a smile, while pointing at the Finance Minister sitting beside him. 

“You want Paschal Donohoe’s job and you don’t even know who owns SuperValu? Or can’t even use Google? Give me a break,” he concluded.

Unintelligible shouts continued from the Sinn Féin benches, as the Tánaiste repeated: “Give me a break, Pearse, give me a break.”

Rising to her feet for her speaking slot, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore was far from impressed with the scenes she had just witnessed. 

“Anybody looking in on this debate today will have their head in their hands. They are worried about putting food on their table, they are worried about turning their lights on and we have this kind of behaviour going on? 

“It’s just — I actually don’t think either of you get it,” the Wicklow TD said.