The Progressive Democrats yesterday moved to ease the pressure on the Government, with the Tanaiste, Ms Mary Harney, insisting her party was in government for "the long haul". As Fine Gael continued to condemn the Taoiseach on the basis that he had been part of "the Haughey system" of government, Ms Harney dismissed suggestions that trust between herself and Mr Ahern had been damaged by recent events.
Fianna Fail attacks on the media continued, with the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, accusing "a certain section of the media" of thinking it fashionable to destabilise a government. He also denied there was any strain in relations between the two Government parties.
Dr McDaid said that this section of the media was being fed by Fine Gael, and he suggested they be called "a politerazzi".
Rejecting reports of tension with Mr Ahern, Ms Harney said: "When difficulties arise the Taoiseach and I will resolve them."
Ms Harney said her party had not asked Mr Burke to resign, nor had it asked the Taoiseach to dismiss him. She had been told when she met the Taoiseach on Monday that Mr Burke would be resigning.
Ms Harney said that by last Saturday Mr Burke had got into an impossible position. In his statement, he had said he could not give his main job, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, his full commitment because he had had 14 weeks of controversy.
She did not agree that if the Coalition parties lost one of the two forthcoming by-elections it was "curtains" for the Government.
"The last thing this country needs is another general election. We want a strong stable government, and I believe Dail Eireann will give this Government an opportunity to provide that over the next few years," she said.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael has continued to accuse the Taoiseach of sharing responsibility for events of the Haughey era. Mr John Bruton said yesterday that Mr Ahern was refusing to face up to his own role in past events.
"Mr Ahern was a collectively responsible member of Mr Haughey's cabinet. He was his whip during the leadership heaves against him. He knew, from the inside, all about Mr Haughey's system of doing business, the private meetings in Kinsealy, the breaching of procedures, including cabinet procedures, and the undermining of collective responsibility by issuing direct orders to ministers' offices from the Taoiseach's office.
"The present Taoiseach was an integral part of that system. And, more importantly, he defended it at every opportunity, trying to keep Mr Haughey on top in Fianna Fail at all costs when others were brave enough to challenge Mr Haughey."
Mr Bruton said his party wanted "to eradicate the Haughey system for ever from Irish politics", but this could only happen if those who operated and sustained that system first admitted their part in it. The Fianna Fail reaction to Mr Burke's resignation showed it had not come to terms with its past.
"Any party which could blame Mr Burke's fall on the media, the Fine Gael party and some technicalities about passports and not see that everything that Mr Burke did, including the £30,000 donation and the passports matter, had to be viewed in the context of his participation in the Haughey system has not faced up to its past at all."
Mr Bruton also accused Mr Ahern of issuing a "veiled threat", similar to ones which "Mr Ahern and his then and present friends used over and over again to keep Charles Haughey in control in government and in Fianna Fail".
Mr Ahern had told Mr Bruton in the Dail on Wednesday that he hoped he would not come to an untimely political end as Mr Burke had. He wondered if Mr Bruton's "actions in government would survive the intense scrutiny that had then been focused on Mr Burke".
Mr Bruton called on Mr Ahern to say what he was talking about, either inside or outside the Dail. "I have nothing to fear from any investigation of anything I did in government. I will not be deterred from doing my work, as I think right, by anything Mr Ahern says, either at private meetings he requests me to have with him or across the floor of the Dail."
The newly-appointed Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, yesterday defended the Taoiseach, who he said had been subjected to the most unfair and savage criticism simply for treating Mr Burke with compassion and humanity.
"If it's a fault to be decent, if it's a fault to give somebody a chance until solid evidence against them is produced, if it's a fault to show that sort of understanding, then the Taoiseach was at fault."
Mr Smith was also critical of certain sections of the media which he claimed had harassed Mr Burke, knowing well that he had just suffered a family bereavement. Their behaviour was the worst he had encountered in 25 years in politics.