Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness says offering the Health Minister a baby's soother was his attempt at humour.
The Carlow-Kilkenny Deputy approached Stephen Donnelly at this week's parliamentary party meeting and tried to give him the dummy, but the Minister refused to take it.
Both politicians have been engaged in a long-running spat.
John McGuinness has repeatedly called for the Minister and the Department of Health Secretary General Robert Watt to go before the Oireachtas Finance Committee over the senior civil servant's €81,000 pay increase.
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John McGuinness says he had his grandchild's soother in his pocket at the meeting.
