Labour and Sinn Féin have become embroiled in a row over political patronage in appointments to State boards.

Tánaiste Joan Burton claimed yesterday that, despite adopting the moral high-ground on cronyism, Sinn Féin had also used opportunities to appoint its party members to the boards of such institutions.

However, Sinn Féin countered by pointing out that all of its appointees to the North-South boards had been approved by the North South Ministerial Council and that Ms Burton herself had been at the meeting where the all the names were presented for approval.

Ms Burton said she had a list of 10 Sinn Féin members who had been appointed to such bodies.

Later, the Labour Party released a list which showed that some eight members of Sinn Féin had been appointed to cross-Border and North-South bodies since 2005, though not all simultaneously.

The bodies included Foras na Gaeilge, Intertrade Ireland and Safe Food, where MEP for Dublin Lynn Boylan was on the board for five years.

Labour claimed inconsistency on Ms Boylan’s part in launching Sinn Féin’s proposal to overhaul State appointments when she herself had been a political appointee.