A row has broken out between the Health Minister Simon Harris and the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
Deputy Martin has claimed the Fine Gael TD is a poor and ineffective minister - while Minister Harris sharply criticised Deputy Martin's own time in government during the 1990s and 2000s.
Fianna Fáil has also accused the government of being disingenuous when it comes to the health budget by giving false estimates.
Speaking in Gorey - where the party is holding its annual think-in - Deputy Martin claimed the Budget planning from Simon Harris is damaging the health service.
He argued: "The absence of multi-annual funding and the absence of full transparency around the budget is undermining the capacity of the health services to plan ahead.
"[It's undermining the capacity] to have the requisite number of resources to deal with a growing elderly population [and] greater strains on emergency departments because of that."
Directly criticising Minister Harris, he added: "I don't think he's an effective minister, and I think he's been a very poor minister on a number of fronts."
The Health Minister, meanwhile, rebuffed claims that the current government's budget planning was dishonest.
Responding to the criticism from Deputy Martin, Minister Harris said: "You've got to remember when this man sat around the cabinet table he took medical cards off thousands of people over the age of 70.
"It's quite hard and galling to take a lecture from Micheál Martin in relation to this."
