Crass comment puts Lilo Noel in the shade

IT takes an act of immense political crassness to put hapless Transport Minister Noel Dempsey in the ha’penny place, but his Labour shadow Tommy Broughan managed to do so with jaw-dropping effect yesterday.

Mr Dempsey has shot himself in the foot so many times in recent days his lower leg now resembles a Swiss cheese, but when the two veteran adversaries crossed swords at a probe into the Government’s dismal response to the Big Freeze it was Mr Broughan who was left red-faced.

To be sure, the three weeks of sub-zero temperatures Ireland has just emerged from caused a lot of hardship, and the decision of the Cabinet to disappear for most of the emergency was outrageous, but for Mr Broughan to suggest they behaved “something like the government of Haiti” was just a tad over the top.