The EU Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, is not expected to make any public statement on the alleged payment of £50,000 to him by property developer Mr Tom Gilmartin, following the decision of the Flood tribunal not to "advise or counsel" him on the matter.
A Government spokesman last night said events had overtaken a Labour Party motion due to be debated tonight suggesting Mr Flynn should not be reappointed Commissioner.
It is understood the Government will seek to amend the motion to allow itself maximum flexibility in dealing with the issue of a replacement.
Earlier, the Government had simply "noted" the response from Mr Justice Flood to a Dail query about whether Mr Flynn had been asked by the tribunal not to discuss the matter of the £50,000 and whether he was now free to make a full statement, as requested by the House.
In his reply, Mr Justice Flood said all interviews conducted by its representatives were strictly confidential.
"Commissioner Flynn, prior to commencement of the interview, was informed that his interview was confidential and was requested not to discuss the subject matter of the interview with any other person or to divulge the contents of the interview to any other person," he wrote.
It would be "inappropriate" for the tribunal to appear to advise or counsel Mr Flynn on "any response which he may wish to make to the Dail".
"Any response to the query posed is capable of being so represented and accordingly the tribunal must decline to answer that query," the judge added.
Fine Gael, which tabled the original motion calling for a full statement, immediately interpreted the tribunal response as effectively clearing the way for Mr Flynn to break his silence. The party's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, said Fine Gael was now renewing its call for Mr Flynn to respond to the motion passed by the Dail to make a full statement.
A Fine Gael spokeswoman said it intends to support the Labour motion declaring the renomination of Mr Flynn to the Commission would be "inappropriate".
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said while a "definitive interpretation" of Mr Justice Flood's response might be difficult to arrive at, a "reasonable interpretation" was that Mr Flynn was free to make a full statement in relation to the alleged payment. In fact, the tribunal chairman had clearly implied Mr Flynn was not precluded from making a statement to the Dail should he wish to.
Fianna Fail TD Ms Mary Hanafin said last night Mr Padraig Flynn had landed himself in a position where he could not be reappointed as an EU Commissioner.
"It's unfortunate for himself as nobody could question the work he has done in Europe where he has been one of the better members of the Commission but he has found himself in a position where he could not be re-appointed," she said.
Speaking on the RTE television programme Questions and Answers, Ms Hanafin said she believed Mr Flynn would not have been re-nominated to the Commission at the end of his term in any case but "he had landed himself in a situation where he was unreappointable."
She said the person appointed as Commissioner needed to be highly competent with excellent negotiating skills but also needed to be politically acceptable at home. She admitted Mr Flynn no longer was politically acceptable to any of the political parties.
Ms Hanafin added that the person appointed was likely to serve a full term rather than being a member of an interim Commission.