Tánaiste Mary Coughlan tonight refused to rule out a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle as under strain Government ministers prepared for an opposition onslaught in the wake of poor election results.
The Dail will resume with Fine Gael tabling a motion of no confidence in the Coalition, still reeling from a meltdown in local and European support and the high-profile defeat of Fianna Fáil's outgoing Dublin MEP Eoin Ryan.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed the public has passed judgment and urged every TD to question where their support lies.
"This is a case where every deputy sent up by the people is now going to have to examine why it is in the Dail and if the Government is doing a good job or not," he said.
"The Taoiseach says he can ignore these elections, these elections are irrelevant, I take a very different view.
"The voice of the people have spoken. They've convicted this Government and the Dail will have its opportunity to cast its judgment on that."
But a defiant Ms Coughlan insisted the Government was not contemplating a general election any time soon, but she declined to rule out the possibility of ministerial changes.
"I haven't heard the Taoiseach indicate that he's going to have a Cabinet reshuffle as of yet," she said, at the North West count in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
"There was a change within the ministers of state... and it is the Taoiseach's prerogative to do what he needs to do."
The Tánaiste accepted the atrocious performance of Fianna Fáil in the European, local and by-elections was making life difficult for the senior coalition party.
She added: "The next general election is not supposed to be for the next three years, but we don't anticipate a general election at this moment in time."
But Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said that the decision of the Fianna Fáil and Greens to continue in Government was "defying the wishes of the Irish people"
One of Fianna Fáil's three European successes came from Brian Crowley in South, who topped the poll and is widely tipped to be put forward to run for President in two years.
The party followed that with the election of Liam Aylward in East and an expected win for Pat "the Cope" Gallagher who remained on course to top the vote in the North-West, making amends for Mr Ryan's defeat.
His 25-year political career crashed to a halt at dawn in the RDS with triumph for Socialist Joe Higgins.
The Cabinet will meet in the morning with the damning election results expected to figure strongly on top of normal business and coalition party officials suggesting ministerial changes may be being considered.
The Greens privately blamed their disastrous polling on "guilt by association" with one source suggesting that candidates were warned they were facing a one-off punishment for taking power with Fianna Fáil.
But leader and Environment Minister John Gormley insisted: "We survived and we will continue to survive. We will recover.
"We are a resilient party. We are a party that is based on an idea, you cannot kill an idea. We have people of integrity, people of ability, we will recover and we will do the very best for this country."
The Greens will hold their normal parliamentary party meeting tomorrow evening before all elected representatives, including its only three councillors, meet on Saturday.
Meanwhile, in the South Labour's Alan Kelly took the final seat on offer in the constituency while in the North West, Libertas leader Declan Ganley failed to make the impression he had confidently predicted and said tonight he was bowing out of politics.