DÁIL SKETCH:THE MOOTED cross-party economic love-in formed the backdrop to yesterday's Dáil proceedings.

Fine Gael did its best to appear interested, Labour considerably less so, while Sinn Féin, excluded from the Taoiseach’s mailing list, spotted a potential political vacuum to fill.

“It is not only Sinn Féin which has been excluded,’’ thundered Dáil party leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, with mock anger, on the Order of Business.

“Independent voices, who have a right to be heard, have also been excluded.’’ Independent Finian McGrath, clearly eager to be part of the Government’s plans to slash and burn, agreed. His mock anger rivalled Ó Caoláin’s.

Delighted with the discomfort elsewhere on the Opposition benches, Ó Caoláin warned that “Fine Gael and Labour will be complicit in this exclusion if they continue to give this process their blessing’’.

The mooted cross-party economic love-in surfaced again later during the resumed debate on the bank guarantee.

Fine Gael’s Deirdre Clune welcomed Wednesday’s letter from the Taoiseach and the earlier communication from Green Party leader John Gormley.

But she expressed concern about the possible lack of detail available on departmental expenditure. A get-out clause?

As for the Government’s initiative, Labour’s Pat Rabbitte was having none of it.

He lashed out at “talk of consensus and shared analysis and mock humility’’. Ministers of State Martin Mansergh and, later, Peter Power, provided the lone presence on the Government benches. Backbenchers were otherwise conveniently engaged.

“To hell with phoney consensus. We need a fresh start,’’ said Rabbitte.“We need a new government with a mandate, not some behind-closed doors formula for paralysis.’’ Rabbitte targeted “those at the top of Fianna Fáil who have lived high on the hog because they thought they were worth it’’.

He spread his net wide.

“Cowen, Martin, Ahern, Dempsey, Ó Cuív, O’Donoghue and O’Dea . . . Today their reputation is in tatters . . . Their legacy has turned to dust.’’ By then, Power had taken over from Mansergh, and he cut an isolated figure. Glancing up from a brief he was reading, he stared, ashen-faced, at Rabbitte. He returned to his reading.

Then Rabbitte rounded on Bertie Ahern and that infamous television advertisement, with still no backbencher present to utter even a token heckle.

“To end up in a Rupert Murdoch cupboard is the final insult to a people who gave him a lot of rope,’’ said Rabbitte.

When Rabbitte concluded, Power remarked, in a tone dripping with sarcasm: “I am glad to hear a fine articulation of the Labour Party’s policy on consensus.’’

Opposition parties want an electoral hanging of the Coalition on general election day and not the mooted cross-party economic love-in. For now, however, it is a case of trying to maintain straight faces, as the parties embark on what most TDs privately concede is a road to nowhere.