The Minister of State at the Office of Public Works, Mr Martin Cullen, should resign because of the "shambles" surrounding the new extension to Leinster House, Fine Gael Senator Maurice Manning said last night.
A number of secretarial staff, members of SIPTU, were told to go home yesterday because of the conditions in the new building, which was due to be fully operational this morning, when the Dail returns after the summer recess.
The Office of Public Works architect in charge of the project will meet union representatives this morning to go through the building, accompanied by a health and safety officer.
On Sunday Mr Cullen said the £25 million project had come in on time, on budget and at a fraction of the cost of similar extensions in other parliaments.
However, Mr Manning said these were "Napoleonic" claims by Mr Cullen when in fact he had "created chaos".
"My old office is empty, the crates with all my files are still up there. The walls are bare. There is no desk and the phones aren't there. They assured everybody that everything would be OK on the day. People could have waited, now it's just chaos."
One opposition party official said: "There were people walking around with electric saws, plasterers at work, wires hanging out of walls, fellows walking around with power drills. One of the lifts had no lights. There were hundreds of crates stacked on corridors and guys going around trying to sort them out. The OPW cut the phone lines by mistake on Sunday night so there was that problem to add to the chaos."
The Government chief whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, said he and Mr Cullen had been assured yesterday by the OPW that the offices would be habitable this morning. He said there were some "teething" problems but these would be sorted out. "In June there were two and three deputies to an office, now everyone has their own office. They don't have to cross the road from Kildare Street any more. We have double the space we had three months ago."
The Dail resumes today at 2.30 p.m. Votes of sympathy will be passed for the late deputes Theresa Ahearn, John Boland and Joe Sheridan, and Fine Gael has tabled a motion on inflation.