DÁIL SKETCH:RUAIRÍ QUINN pulled a magic rabbit out of the hat. His news, temporarily, stopped the increasing flak he was getting from Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald about salaries to political advisers. And the heckling from all sides of the House was briefly suspended.

The Minister for Education proudly revealed, the “NTMA sold three-months’ bonds this morning at a 1.8 per cent yield, less than the expected 2 per cent yield”. Putting the toe back in the financial markets worked well.

But there’s no pleasing the Opposition and Mary Lou pointed out: “Those were bills, not bonds.” It was too much for the Minister: “You can’t even accept good news, God love you.” Then he repeated: “You just can’t accept good news,” adding for emphasis, “you’re really pathetic.”

It marked the end, for Leaders’ Questions at least, of some bitter exchanges between the two.

Mary Lou has learned well the skill of pressing the appropriate painful buttons for Government.

A major one is what’s on the table for budget discussions. That soreness is slowly fading after both Taoiseach and Tánaiste warned each other’s Ministers not to be talking outside Cabinet meetings about their contradictory suggestions for cuts.

The other painful issue TDs have told their leaders is the main talking point on constituents’ doorsteps – the breaching of the €92,000 salary cap for political advisers. For the Opposition, it is the gift that keeps on giving.

And the Sinn Féin deputy leader wasn’t shy to exploit both issues. What’s on the table for cuts, she asked. Is it basic social welfare rates? Is it payments to the most vulnerable families? Would there be a tax for the “high rollers” on more than €100,000 – Sinn Féin’s favourite tax option. Or will the Government consider “cuts to the extravagant salaries paid to your own special advisers”.

She threw this in after she informed the Minister Sinn Féin had met the troika, who made it “very clear” the Government has a wide choice and option on the policies it pursues on tax reform and social welfare.

Will the Government “finally show leadership” on the salary cap, she asked provocatively. Introduced by this administration, the cap was honoured “more in the breach than the observance”. She reminded the House of some salaries, including the €168,000 for one of the Tánaiste’s advisers and €155,000 for another.

Ruairí is quick on the ripostes and he was glad Sinn Féin met the troika. “It might detach you from the voodoo economics you spout in here,” he said. “The reality is no family, no small business and no country can run a permanent budget deficit.” He couldn’t answer “hypothetical questions”.

But the Government would try to move to a deficit of 3 per cent and then to a surplus, something last achieved by Fine Gael and Labour in 1997 – when Ruairí was minister for finance. Anyway there are only a fraction of the number of advisers the last government had and they’re paid only a fraction of their predecessors, he insists.

Mary Lou said “your own brand of voodoo economics is catastrophic for families” and she told him not to be singing his own praises. So “will the Government honour the cap”, she sniped.

Ruairí sniped back: “I’ll take no lecture from a party whose military wing visited 2½ decades of austerity on this island.”