OPPOSITION parties last night redoubled their demands for the resignation of the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, on the eve of today's no confidence debate in the Dail.
However, last night the increasingly beleaguered Mrs Owen retained the public backing of her Government colleagues in spite of her earlier dramatic admission that she had not told the Dail about a letter from Judge Dominic Lynch.
The judge had sent the letter, inquiring about his position, almost two and a half months after the Cabinet had decided to delist him as a judge on the Special Criminal Court but failed to inform him.
Calls for Mrs Owen's resignation continued to come from Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats leaders. Mr Bertie Ahern said Mrs Owen's position was now "totally untenable". Demanding that she resign, he asked how Labour and Democratic Left could stand over what was happening.
The leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, said the new information was only revealed under pressure, and it also raised serious questions about the position of the Taoiseach and the Attorney General.
Following a day of speculation about the existence of correspondence from Judge Lynch to the Minister, Mrs Owen last night drew down a deluge of fresh Opposition demands for her resignation by confirming that she had, in fact, been shown such a letter last week but had not informed the Dail because the letter was not dated.
As political parties in Leinster House prepare for a five hour motion of confidence debate in the Government this evening, lawyers for the 16 high security prisoners recharged last week will make habeas corpus applications today to free the men.
Judge Lynch had written to Mrs Owen on October 10th, inquiring about his position vis a vis the Special Criminal Court but the letter was not datestamped by the author or the Department and never came to her attention.
As was the case with a letter from the Attorney General Mr Dermot Gleeson - asking if Judge Lynch had been notified of the Cabinet decision to delist him - this correspondence was placed in a file in the courts division of her Department.
Confirming the existence of the letter from Judge Lynch, Mrs Owen last night sought to explain why she had not informed the Dail about the matter last Thursday.
She said the letter was shown to her by officials shortly before she made her statement in the House last Thursday and attached to it was a letter dated July 2nd, 1996, asking the Minister to delist him as a member of the Special Criminal Court.
"This letter was not date stamped by the Department of Justice, nor was it actually dated by the sender when it was received in the Department and, due to the fact that there were no markings on it, nobody could tell me in the limited time available, when it came in, how it appeared on the file, who had put it on the file and what its status was in relation to the Government decision of August 1st. The only thing I knew was that I had never seen it before Thursday, 7th November", Mrs Owen said.
It also emerged last night that last Friday morning, the Minister telephoned Judge Lynch, apologising on behalf of her Department for the fact that his letters had not been acknowledged and for dragging him into controversy.
When the issue of the second letter from Judge Lynch arose, the Minister said she did not know the date of the second correspondence. The judge said he might be able to clarify the matter through his files and yesterday, at 1.30 p.m., the Minister received a letter from him confirming that the second letter was dated October 10th.
Insisting that the latest twist in the saga did not constitute a resigning matter, the Minister said that she had given all the information to the House in relation to which I was able to establish facts with certainty in the limited time available to me".
Labour sources also confirmed the party's support for the Minister, saying that she still had its full backing and that the position had not altered in the light of the latest revelations.
. The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, who is in Cairo with the EU troika, spoke on the telephone last night to the Taoiseach about the latest developments in the controversy. A spokesman for Mr Spring said the two men would talk on the telephone again this morning and that Mr Spring would be making no further comments on the matter in advance of his expected address to the Dail later this evening, on his return.