Bertie, Britney and tough tackling at question time

A FULL 41 days since he last took Leaders’ Questions, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern seemed to be having difficulty concentrating on the opposition’s questions yesterday.

"Anyway," he sighed dismissively, as he wearily rose to his feet to respond to questions from Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.

But others were just as exasperated with the Taoiseach's own responses as he delivered another masterclass in the fine art of speaking effortlessly without divulging any apparent position this time on the topic of the Government's white paper on better regulations and progress by the National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO).