Elaine Loughlin: Opposition let themselves down with attacks on Leo Varadkar in the Dáil 

It was one of those times politics should have been set aside but Labour, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, and People Before Profit could barely articulate a proper farewell to the departing Taoiseach

Ivana Bacik's insistence on a general election was laden with irony: In 1994, her party switched sides in the Dáil — 'the first and only time that an entirely new government was established without a general election'. Picture: Damien Storan/PA

There are times when even the politicians should put the politics to one side, and this week was one of those occasions.

But outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wasn’t afforded that level of respect and the opposition decided to continue with the usual barbed rhetoric during his final Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil.