It's not often that the Healy-Rae brothers come under attack from fellow opposition TDs, but today the tables were turned by Labour's Duncan Smith.
His party put forward a motion today calling on Government to pursue a "National Aggressive Suppression Strategy" to curb the spread the spread of Covid-19.
The objective, according to Party leader Alan Kelly, was to "get it down so low, that we get it down to double digits, that we can give Ireland a chance, that 2021 will be different to 2020".
It was broadly welcomed by their Dáil colleagues, among them Sinn Féin's David Cullinane, Social Democrat's Róisín Shortall and Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit, whose party has been advocating a Zero-Covid approach since autumn.
Even the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, said that he believed their motion contained "many, many very good ideas".
However, some Independent TDs were not so enthusiastic, among them the Healy-Rae brothers.
Michael Healy-Rae was first to speak, describing them as the "lost Labour Party of today, who are walking in the political wilderness" and of "just trying to make themselves relevant in the whole political landscape today".
He told Duncan Smith that the motion proved that Labour don't understand workers or small businesses.
"They do not understand work, they don't understand business, they don't understand what it is trying to keep a door open... they don't have a clue," Michael Healy Rae asserted.
Danny Healy-Rae was of a similar view, "take for instance somebody trying to build their own house and getting in carpenter or a plumber, just to do work to finish off a house... do you realise that people need to finish off their homes?" Deputy Healy-Rae queried.
"Wake-up, wake-up!", he thundered.
It was left to Duncan Smith to wrap up the debate. He used the opportunity to hit back at the Kerry Deputies.
"They said we didn't understand working people and that we didn't understand a carpenter coming to a house to have to fix a job," Deputy Smith said.
"Well, I'm the son of carpenter, I'm not the son of Fianna Fáil privilege," he told the Dáil.
A furious Danny Healy-Rae interjected, but couldn't be heard in the large expanse of the Convention Centre. His microphone was off, Duncan Smith had the floor.
Deputy Smith shouted back: "I'm not going to be lectured on understanding workers, I don't have to put on a political costume and a caricature to pretend I'm working class like some, they do".
Meanwhile, the Minister for Health sat silently, as the row between Labour and the Healy-Raes took centre stage.
