SINN FÉIN deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald is proving a very robust performer during Tánaiste’s Questions every Thursday, but she manages to stay out of the macho exchanges so beloved of the boys.

As the Order of Business drew to a close, a row erupted between Labour and Sinn Féin on the issue of the banking guarantee. Sinn Féin voted for it, Labour did not, and has been taunting the Shinners over this ever since.

It was Fine Gael’s Peter “Father” Mathews who reminded the House: “Today is September 29th, the third anniversary of the bank guarantee. It is 1,095 days since the guarantee was entered into that has left the country on its knees and in pain.”

There is nothing Fr Mathews doesn’t know about the banking crisis, and he is unanimous with himself in this opinion.

Enter Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, who is quite the whizz in matters economic. “I do not normally disagree with Peter Mathews, but today is not the anniversary of when the bank guarantee came into effect. It came into effect two weeks later when the terms and conditions were presented to the House . . . ” There was a dull thud, whereupon Fr Mathews was carried out.

As chaos descended and the boys on all sides roared at each other, Mary Lou looked over at Labour’s Ciara Conway. Over the din, you could just, barely, make out what she was shouting.

“Ciara, where did you get your shoes?”