Cleaning up the unacceptable face of big business moved centre stage in the Dail yesterday as the Coalition Government sought to distance itself from the Haughey years.

At the same time, Charlie McCreevy's criticisms of the Taoiseach bore fruit. Bertie Ahern drew a line in the sand between his actions as Minister for Finance and his responsibilities as Taoiseach.

Too many media interviews by Mr Ahern had exacerbated the problems of the Government, Mr McCreevy declared on Monday morning, as he advocated a button-lipped approach to the media.

The extraordinary outburst convulsed Fianna Fail as motivation was analysed. And it took a phone call by the Minister for Finance to Paris to make peace with the Taoiseach.

But the basic premise found acceptance with Fianna Fail tacticians. The Taoiseach had to be removed from the centre-stage position he had occupied at the Fine Gael ard fheis. He must not become the focus of a string of allegations arising from the shady Haughey years.

And so it came to pass. Mr Ahern told the Dail yesterday he would not be answering questions about the granting of a contract to G-Tech to supply technology and hardware to the National Lottery at about the same time as a G-Tech executive had invested in Celtic Helicopters. Nor would he deal with a section of the 1994 Finance Act which granted retrospective tax relief to art collections and such valuables.

That was another country. The Taoiseach had no records, files or briefing notes concerning those events arising from his days as finance minister. But he had undertaken to get the files and make them available because of the allegations that had been made. His responsibility ended there. If there were questions, they would have to be addressed to the Department of Finance because he didn't have any records.

Nothing there about verbal briefings or political representations. Nothing about memory; all about files and written records. And so, last night, officials from the Department of Finance were made available to deal on a one-to-one basis with questions from pesky journalists on the basis that there was "nothing there, nothing to hide".

It may have accorded with Mr McCreevy's view of effective government, but it has enraged the opposition parties. And all hell is now likely to break loose in the Dail.

What should have been a good day for the Coalition Government, as it grappled with the distasteful business practices of the past, dribbled into controversy.

Mary Harney was first up to talk about the 13 investigations she had commissioned into the affairs of Irish companies. The Tanaiste didn't like what was being discovered. There had been, she said, serious lapses in corporate governance and she was determined to take action when the final reports became available.

As a first step, she would be bringing legislative proposals to Cabinet, based on recommendations from an expert committee headed by Michael McDowell, to tighten company procedures.

The events of the past few days at the tribunals of inquiry had shown that her concerns about standards within Irish business were justified. Some key principals, Ms Harney said, had felt they could ignore company law and corporate governance. They had gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid their responsibilities to themselves, to their companies and to their shareholders.

And the problem wasn't just confined to some high-flying businessmen, she intoned. The accountancy profession was now examining the role its members played in those affairs.

Corrupt business and financial practices was also a feature of the hymn sheet chosen by Mr McCreevy, when he introduced his Finance Bill to the Dail.

The Kildare Minister majored on his proposals to sort out the long-running scandal of Irish-registered non-resident companies. The money-laundering activities of some of the 4,000 or so companies involved and the billions of pounds that had flushed through the Irish system was dealt with in true Department of Finance style.

Money-laundering became "questionable purposes". And, under the new rules, mafia bosses and their butties from the dark side would be required to identify themselves or the country in which their companies were trading.

As for the Irish professionals who facilitated and grew wealthy on the trade, they would only be allowed to "front" for 25 companies in the future.

All companies would have to lodge a £20,000 bond and file returns. The Revenue Commissioner would liaise with the Registrar of Companies to ensure non compliant firms would be struck off.

Turning to off-shore trusts and companies established by Irish taxshy residents, the accountant-turned-minister said the new law would bring us into line with UK practices.

He agreed we had not kept up with changes across the water. He even went so far as to admit there was "some evidence" that trusts were increasingly being used as a means of avoiding Irish tax.

With a weather eye on the back-to-back accounts that had existed for years within the Ansbacher/Guinness & Mahon arrangement, Mr McCreevy proposed to tackle tax "avoidance" by imposing an exit charge on trusts moving off-shore. There would also be new disclosure requirements to the Revenue and more stringent and limited exemptions.

The Minister was "happy the changes will close off a potential avenue for tax avoidance . . . as personal wealth in Ireland continues to grow".

The Finance Bill will not cause mafia bosses and hardened tax evaders to shake in their shoes, but it is a hell of an improvement on the old situation.

In that regard, the new powers being given to the Revenue Commissioners to trawl for buckshee bank accounts has already generated significant political pressure. Monied people and their professional advisers within the Institute of Taxation are seeking to apply a brake to these powers through the appointment of an ombudsman.

Mr McCreevy gave them cold comfort. First he chopped away some of their potential support by quoting the Revenue as saying that "smaller cases" would not be dealt with under this law. And the best he could offer was to keep the ombudsman idea under review.

Tax evasion has been moved up the Government's and the public's agenda by a screed of recent disclosures. And, as political fall-out continues from the Moriarty tribunal, a natural political reluctance to avoid "unwarranted intrusion" into the affairs of taxpayers has been swept away.

The Minister's forthright approach will do the Government no harm in the event of an early election.