FINE GAEL finance spokesman Michael Noonan has said his description of Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern as “a nasty little man” was simply an application of “the rules of Munster rugby”, and he denied there was any antagonism between them.
In the course of some sharp exchanges on RTÉ's Morning Irelandyesterday about the Government's revised capital spending plan, Mr Noonan said: "Isn't Dermot Ahern a nasty little man, who keeps making personal comments about me?"
Later at a press conference on the Thornton Hall prison project, Mr Ahern was asked about Mr Noonan’s description of him and he replied: “Michael Noonan is becoming a bit of a caricature of himself, isn’t he?”
When it was put to him that Mr Noonan’s comments were unusually personalised, the Minister said: “To be honest, I’m not really worried about what Michael Noonan says. I have broad shoulders and we’re all able to take the slings and arrows of politics.”
He said that in the radio discussion, he had recalled Mr Noonan’s previous period as Opposition finance spokesman: “We had a budget, I was minister [for social affairs] at the time and we gave a record increase to old-age pensioners of £10, and I do remember him saying [here the Minister impersonated Mr Noonan’s intonation]: ‘It wouldn’t buy a bag of coal’, which I thought was mealy-mouthed.”
Asked whether Mr Noonan had apologised for his “nasty little man” description, the Minister responded in amused terms: “Certainly not! Don’t worry, I’ve been called worse in my day. I think he mightn’t have liked the bit where I said that he’s trying to have it both ways.
“He must be on his own in politics, that he’s been able to get through a [Fine Gael] leadership battle without coming down on one side or the other.”
Commenting afterwards, Mr Noonan said: “The sequence of it was that, as we debated the reannouncement of the shredded National Development Plan, Dermot Ahern passed a number of personal comments about me, which I let go and let go and let go again. At some point in the conversation, the rules of Munster rugby apply. If somebody is consistently fouling you, you don’t consistently foul them back, you just take them out with one belt.”
Asked whether there was a “needle” between himself and the Minister, Mr Noonan quipped: “I wasn’t aware of a needle.”
