Fianna Fáil Minister of State for Justice, Mr Willie O'Dea, has been criticised for questioning the decision of Labour leader Mr Pat Rabbitte to send his daughter to a fee-paying Leaving Certificate grind school.
Accusing the Labour Party of raising "hypocrisy to the level of a crusade", Mr O'Dea said: "Whenever I witness their sanctimonious posturing in the Dáil, I think of the gap between their own lives and the people they profess to represent."
Mr Rabbitte's daughter spent a year at the Templeogue-based Ashfield College's full-time Leaving Certificate course.
Mr Rabbitte is not breaching any party policy by sending his daughter to the private grind school, the party's education spokeswoman, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said.
Repeating Labour's long-standing objections to the level of State funding given to fee-paying schools, Ms O'Sullivan said this was a separate issue.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, had promised to consider this issue, she said: "We've never said grind schools shouldn't exist."
In the Dáil recently, the Labour spokeswoman said "grind schools" vastly increased a student's chances of getting to third-level. Questioned on RTÉ's Week in Politics late last night, Fianna Fáil MEP, Mr Gerard Collins, who is running again in the South constituency, was clearly unhappy about Mr O'Dea's conduct.
"During my political life I have never made any public comment in any way about [the private lives of] any member of the Opposition parties, or in my own party.
"I am firmly convinced that it is solely the responsibility of the parents to decide what school they want to send their children to. I believe that we must have a clear understanding of the personal life of members of the Oireachtas.
"I have good reason to know that myself in recent times. Families should be off-limits. It is a matter entirely for the parents to decide where their children go to school.
"That is purely a matter for them and it should be respected as such by everybody: media and everybody involved in politics," said Mr Collins.
Fine Gael TD, Mr Gay Mitchell, who is running for the European Parliament in Dublin, said: "I really think it is wrong that political colleagues should mention things like this."
Defending the Labour leader, Mr Mitchell said: "That is where a lot of children from Pat Rabbitte's Tallaght go. It is a non-story. "In my view it is an indecent thing to do to bring the children of Pat Rabbitte into it and to try to make a story out of it. It's wrong," he declared.
Green MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, who is running in Dublin, said she was disappointed but not surprised by Mr O'Dea's remarks.
"People's personal lives should not be attacked in this way . . . It doesn't surprise me one bit that he is attacking people in relation to personal family details."