The Minister for Justice accused the Opposition of engaging in a McCarthyite pursuit of the Government.

"What has been going on in this House for the past number of days is McCarthyism," said Mr O'Donoghue. "It is unworthy of the tradition of the Fine Gael and Labour leaderships."

Criticising the Opposition parties, the Minister said nobody knew what they stood for. "I challenge the Fine Gael and Labour parties to put forward coherent policies before the Irish people."

Declaring that he had questions for Fine Gael and Labour, Mr O'Donoghue said he wanted to know why, in the dying days of the Rainbow Government, there was a rush to sign the contract to allow the State's second mobile phone operator access to the network of Garda radio masts.

The Fine Gael spokesman on finance, Mr Michael Noonan, said the O'Flaherty affair was the touchstone of a failed administration. "The display by Fianna Fail and the Taoiseach at yesterday's hearing of the Moriarty tribunal sent a shudder through the country, and the Tanaiste's ill-considered remarks on Mr Haughey have prevented the courts from proceeding with his trial for the foreseeable future."

Mr Noonan said the fact "that a woman who had dedicated her political career to eradicating Haugheyism from Irish politics is now the instrument through which he escapes will surely enter the textbooks as the classic example of dramatic irony".