HIGH DRAMA in the Seanad chamber on Wednesday evening when Minister of State Róisín Shortall tore strips off Senator Marc MacSharry after he ripped up a ministerial speech and branded the person who wrote it “a clown”.

The scene unfolded at the end of what was an ill-tempered debate on the Access to Cancer Treatment Bill, which was co-sponsored by Fianna Fáil’s MacSharry and Independent John Crown.

Senators looked on in astonishment as Shortall rounded on MacSharry, who had just delivered a furious response to the speech delivered earlier by her Labour colleague and fellow junior minister, Kathleen Lynch.

She was speaking on behalf of the Minister for Health, who was out of the country.

The Government rejected the Bill.

This is not unusual. Opposition Bills rarely get the chance to fly. But the content and tone of this particular speech angered the Opposition.

“I co-sponsored the Bill in a spirit of bipartisanship,” said Crown. “I am not a member of a party and, on a personal basis, I am hugely offended by some of the imputations made in the Minister of State’s script.” Kathleen Lynch ploughed on but seemed somewhat ill at ease. As the interruptions continued, she accused hecklers of being “disrespectful”. Fianna Fáil Seanad leader Darragh O’Brien described the speech as “nothing short of condescending” and “littered with insults”.

The argument raged hot and heavy for 90 minutes. In the course of it, Lynch was replaced by Shortall.

Marc MacSharry was the last to speak, clearly incensed by the Government’s response to his Bill.

“What clown wrote this script?” he asked.

Asked to withdraw the word clown, he said: “The person who wrote this script would be better juggling in a circus ring than writing speeches for a Minister to reply.”

During the debate, Labour’s John Gilroy said the script had been “proofed” by the director of the National Cancer Control Programme.

If this was the case, indicated MacSharry, he was calling for her resignation.

And he held up the offending speech and declared it was “an insult in the extreme”. Then he tore it in two. “This is what I think of it.” As soon as the division was called, Shortall jumped from her seat and crossed the floor to confront the Fianna Fáil Senator, who was waiting to vote.

She reportedly called him “a disgrace” and accused him of impugning the good name of public servants.

MacSharry put his hands in the air and said, “I don’t want to talk to you any more”.

As the Minister continued to remonstrate with him, he stepped back and called out to colleagues “will somebody tell her to stop berating me?”

The Minister ordered him to “come back” as he walked away.

Shortall then turned to Fianna Fáil’s Paschal Mooney. “You should do something about that thug,” she said.

Finally, she sought out Darragh O’Brien and informed him he needed to “rein in” the Senator, who was a “disgrace.” O’Brien said he would do no such thing and told her to calm down.

The Minister, still fuming, finally left the chamber, telling university Senator Seán Barrett, who had spoken in favour of the Bill, that she was surprised at him.

The Fianna Fáil leader complained on the floor of the Seanad on Thursday about Shortall’s behaviour and conduct towards his colleague.

He followed up yesterday afternoon with a formal letter of complaint to the Cathaoirleach.

“This is not a frivolous complaint,” Darragh O’Brien said. “We can’t have Ministers coming in and acting like this. If every Minister behaved in this manner, every piece of business we do would be highly adversarial.

“It’s the first time this has ever happened, and I hope it’s the last.”