YOU could probably call it a bit of a victory for the defence when the prosecution benches start squabbling among themselves on who gets to pose the questions.

The first Oireachtas session where members of the Dáil Agriculture committee put questions on recent allegations to HRI’s Brian Kavanagh, the IHRB’s Denis Egan and Dr Lynn Hillyer, got a bit stuck as TD Michael Ring and senator Ronan Mullen had bit of a squabble about jumping the gun on procedures. The “it’s my turn to speak, no, it’s mine”, “I have a right to speak before him,” was all a bit unedifying, given they only had a set amount of time and the more squabbling, the less time for anyone to question those at the hearing.