"You're a great man for throwing out horrendous insults, but you can't take it."
Stephen Donnelly slammed Mattie McGrath for insensitive comments made about the Government during the course of the pandemic.
The Minister for Health criticised the Independent TD during a debate on the Health and Criminal Justice Bill 2021 on Wednesday (8 December).
"Let's be honest, you've been against public health measures since day one," Donnelly said.
The comments incensed McGrath, who raised to his feet for a point of order.
"That's not true. It's simply an untruth. He knows that when you were in opposition with me. We attended meetings in government buildings, we supported all the measures from the start until they let the genie out of the bottle, and we all saw what sort of a fraud you are," McGrath said.
"See Deputy, you're a great man for giving insults," Donnelly responded.
"You've accused me and the Government of being Nazis, you said in here last week that we should be brought to the Hague for war crimes.
"You're a great man for throwing out horrendous insults, but you can't take it. You can't listen to the response."
McGrath regularly interrupted Donnelly as he spoke, claiming untruths.
"There you go again, you can't listen," Donnelly said.
The Tipperary TD has regularly been the centre of controversy, comparing Covid vaccine certs as reminiscent of "
Nazi Germany".
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has previously described the comments as “disgraceful" and "contemptible", and the Auschwitz Memorial went so far as to offer the politician a course on the Holocaust, and described his instrumentalisation of the tragedy as unacceptable.
McGrath also caused controversy this year when he compared Covid emergency legislation as "
medical apartheid".
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the use of the word of "apartheid" was "non-acceptable."
"It undermines the actual reality of apartheid," Murphy explained.
