A heated row broke out in the Dáil after a TD was accused of using “unparliamentary language” after a shout of “muppet” when Labour’s Conor Sheehan described earlier exchanges as like being “at Kilmallock cattle market”.
Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash hit out at Sinn Féin’s Mark Ward who made the comment after Mr Sheehan criticised exchanges between Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan and Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy over a question about potential blister pack medication charges.
Leas-Cheann Comhairle John McGuinness told TDs “I’m not prepared to join in the shouting match that goes on every Thursday morning”.
Mr Sheehan thanked him “for calling that out. I mean, this is Dáil Éireann and not Kilmallock cattle mart and every Thursday, we’re treated to the same thing.”
Mr Nash then said Mr Ward “referred to my colleague in unparliamentary terms” and called for the remark to be withdrawn immediately and said “that kind of conduct is not acceptable”.
The Leas-Cheann Comhairle said he did not hear the remark and if Labour wanted to make a complaint to the Ceann Comhairle, it would be investigated.
The non-reusable blister packs store medication in separate plastic pockets for tablets taken at different times of the day, and for each day of the month. Photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto
[ Dáil deputies make their love for dogs (and cats) known in emotional animal welfare debateOpens in new window ]
Earlier Mr Carthy had described the Government’s response to potential charges of up to €50 a month for blister pack medication previously covered by the State.
Accusing the Government of a “Scrooge-like response the week before Christmas” he said blister packs “are not a luxury. They’re a lifeline. Tens of thousands rely on them.
“Older people managing multiple medications, people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, those with intellectual disabilities, brain injuries, mental health challenges.
“Carers and frontline workers know exactly what will happen without them, because these packs allow people to live independently. They prevent confusion, mixed doses, missed doses and double dosing.”
The non-reusable blister packs store medication in separate plastic pockets for tablets taken at different times of the day, and for each day of the month.
Pharmacists have written to patients proposing to charge a minimum of €20 to dispense blister packs from the beginning of January.
Mr Carthy said people were worried because they could not afford the packs, previously free of charge, that “may now cost €20, €30, or even €50 a month. They simply cannot absorb it.”
Mr O’Donovan said the Government was supporting the least well off and most vulnerable in many ways. Under the drugs payment scheme cardholders and their families “only have to pay a maximum of €80 a month for approved medicines”.
Health spending is at its highest level with a budget of €27 billion for 2026, he said adding that “the opportunity still exists for the HSE to engage with the Irish Pharmacy Union and I expect that engagement to happen”.
Mr Carthy said the Government had found billions for developers, banks and landlords but with older people, dementia patients and disability payments “the approach suddenly becomes penny pinching”.
He said “this is a political choice, not a financial necessity”.
But Mr O’Donovan hit back and said that one of Mr Carthy’s colleagues “asked me to hike up the charge for people on their Netflix account”. He said to repeated interventions that if he had done that, Mr Carthy would be “in here today with the same cant as always that we’re not taxing enough”.
[ Ireland’s ‘shameful reputation’ as puppy farm capital of Europe raised in DáilOpens in new window ]
