THERE WERE heated exchanges between the Labour leader and the Taoiseach about the Government’s competence.

Eamon Gilmore said that all over the economy, jobs were being lost and businesses were starved of credit.

He added: “In these times, the country needs a working and functional Government. Instead of that, the Government in office is incompetent, dysfunctional and its parties are clearly distrustful of each other.

“It is tired and now clearly divided. How much longer do the people of this country have to put up with this Government, or is the Taoiseach seriously saying to the people that we must endure two full years of this tired and broken Government?”

Brian Cowen replied: “Will we have to endure two more years of the rhetorical nonsense Deputy Gilmore goes on with and that passes for political comment?”

Mr Gilmore said that the Taoiseach should get used to it.

Mr Cowen said that the country had a Government that had displayed the capacity to take whatever decisions were necessary to restore international credibility to the public finances, which was clearly not present in the Opposition.

“This is a Government determined to pursue a policy that will bring recovery, that will see growth returning to the economy and can only do so on the basis of the strategy outlined and the policies we are pursuing,” he added.

“All the bluster, bluff, rhetoric and words coming from the Opposition will not change that fundamental fact.”

Mr Gilmore said that if the Taoiseach could show the same energy and effort defending the jobs of people losing them in the economy, as he was prepared to show defending his job and the jobs of his Ministers, collectively and individually, everybody would be much better off.

He said that people were beginning to lose hope and starting to despair because they were experiencing major problems in making ends meet, keeping themselves in employment and keeping the personal and family finances going.

“They look at the people who are supposed to be running the country and they see they are not doing it,” he added.

Accusing Mr Gilmore of being involved in “populist policies”, the Taoiseach said that the Labour leader would not have provided any guarantee to the banking system and there would have been a meltdown.

He added that the number of jobs lost as a result would have been in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.