Clashing (not for the first time) over Irish language education, Caitriona Ruane wanted to know how such a young woman ( the DUP's Michelle McIlveen, who is in her mid thirties) could engage in such a rant? Which made me wonder, is it only the old who have the right to rant?
The former MP David Burnside and the current MP Sammy Wilson led the charge this afternoon in criticising Executive ministers in general and Caitriona Ruane in particular for taking too long to answer members' questions. Mr Burnside argued that ministers wouldn't get away with being so long winded at Westminster. The Speaker Willie Hay promised to keep an eye on the ministers and declared that question time would be reformed in the future. But Sinn Fein's Barry McElduff hit back, pointing out that Sammy Wilson had spent much of the question time browsing through "a broadsheet newspaper". Well at least it wasn't a tabloid.
A consortium of groups representing more than 1000 mainly nationalist and republican victims visited Stormont today to unveil their proposal for an international independent truth commission. They want the focus to be on truth rather than prosecutions and are urging the IRA, loyalists and the state to cooperate. We didn't hear any further calls for an amnesty, but they did propose the extension of "use immunity" to anyone who gives evidence to such a commission. That evidence may, or may not be given anonymously.
I think "use immunity" may originally be a US concept. Monica Lewinsky successfully argued that she should get a more extensive form of immunity than "use" immunity when telling all about her liaison with Bill Clinton.
According to the San Francisco Alameda County DA's website use immunity "essentially prohibits the prosecution from using the witnesses testimony against him in any criminal proceeding. Use immunity does not prevent the prosecution from charging the witness with the crime that was the subject of his testimony, filing a petition to revoke the witness's probation, or taking any other action against the witness. It is simply an agreement not to use his testimony against him."
So could this be the way we are heading? Also in the building today (but not at the same time as the victims groups) were Archbishop Robin Eames and Denis Bradley, who have been talking to the First Minister Ian Paisley about their consultation on the past.
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I'm Mark Devenport, BBC NI's political editor, and I'll be blogging here on all things politics. For the latest updates across BBC blogs,
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