DÁIL SKETCH:The last day of this Dáil sitting saw some heated exchanges and chilly seasonal greetings as the parties went their ways until the end of January, writes Michael O'Regan

FOR THE next 40 days and nights, Brian Cowen and his Ministers will wander in the economic and political desert, starved of good poll ratings, before the conclusion of the long Dáil recess at the end of January.

It will be an opportunity for ministerial prayer, with Saint Jude, perhaps, the appropriate recipient. Theologians have been known to reassure politicians in difficulty that not all causes put to Jude, at the saint's regular clinics, are necessarily lost.

There will be some time for reflection, perhaps on the European and local elections in June, even if they are sending shivers down the spines of the most optimistic Soldiers of Destiny.

After the 40 days, the Last Temptation of Brian is unlikely to centre on moving the writ for a spring Dublin South byelection. The expectation is that voters there will go to the polls on the same day as the June poll.

As far as the Opposition is concerned, the Government will use the 40 days and nights to hide their heads in the sand.

Yesterday morning the Taoiseach and his Ministers were castigated for not announcing the economic plan in the Dáil, rather than Dublin Castle, and for the long Dáil adjournment.

Enda Kenny accused the Government of fleeing the Dáil for the long break, "wounded and discredited''.

The Dublin Castle event was dismissed as "a public relations stunt" by Eamon Gilmore. The document should be subject to the scrutiny of the Dáil, he added.

"We fought to get it out of the castle, and now it has gone back to the castle,'' said Kenny's Fine Gael colleague Dinny McGinley. "What about this House?''

Fianna Fáil's John Cregan suggested that McGinley should not be upsetting himself.

Addressing the Government benches, McGinley snapped: "They are Dublin Castle people.''

Fine Gael's Paul Kehoe remarked: "Lord Cowen…''

Addressing the Fianna Fáil benches, FG justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan evoked the memory of tribunals past and present. "You would not co-operate with Dublin Castle when you were asked.''

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who was taking the Order of Business, accused the Opposition parties of hypocrisy, claiming they had used the castle to launch a plan and that they had been demanding the publication of an economic blueprint.

There was a temporary truce for the traditional exchange of season's greetings.

Gilmore thought it would be tempting fate to wish anybody "a prosperous New Year'', while Coughlan was prepared to express the "hope'' that it would indeed be prosperous. A circumspect Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue wished everybody "a successful" New Year.

The goodwill evaporated later when there were exchanges between Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and Labour spokesman Pat Rabbitte on the Equality Authority controversy.

Ahern suggested Rabbitte was "a disgrace'', while Rabbitte called the Minister "a petty little man''. Leas-Cheann Comhairle Brendan Howlin suspended the sitting for 10 minutes to restore order.

At the end of justice question time, there was a further exchange of season's greetings, but they sounded as Arctic as the weather outside.

Then it was the beginning of the 40 days and nights before, as Flanagan put it, hostilities resume.