The Dail's only Sinn Fein TD and the Labour Party leader had different interpretations of the outcome of the North-South Ministerial Council.

Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said the establishment this week of the all-Ireland structures under the Belfast Agreement marked a milestone in the history of the island, "and that it has tremendous potential to render partition redundant".

Mr Ruairi Quinn said that at the early stage of a new and historic step, references to the cross-Border bodies making partition redundant were "misleading in the first instance to the actual contents of the Good Friday agreement and capable of arousing fears of an unnecessary kind".

He added: "We should tread very carefully in relation to this cross-Border co-operation, based as it is on the Council of Europe ministerial meetings".

If the view was allowed to arise that the successful operation of cross-Border bodies would in some way accelerate the making of partition redundant, it would become an impediment for those who were not at Monday's Armagh meeting from being there in the future. It was not in anybody's interest to send out confusing messages.

Mr Ahern said: "That is correct. The principles of consent are elsewhere in the agreement."

Mr O Caolain also asked the Taoiseach if he had raised with the British Prime Minister the discovery of a listening and tracking device in a vehicle used by the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, and the newly-appointed Northern Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness.

Mr Ahern said he had raised the matter and he thought the message was received. He would not, of course, state what Mr Blair had said in return because those meetings were confidential. "However, I made the point strongly."

Mr Austin Currie (FG, Dublin West) said that while they all condemned the bugging of cars or telephones, they also condemned the use of car bombs in the past, "which a certain deputy in this House never condemned in his political life".

Mr Andrew Boylan (FG, Cavan-Monaghan) said the Taoiseach had totally ignored the just claim of the people of Cavan-Monaghan for an office for one of the bodies. Mr Ahern said an extra headquarters, which would probably have gone to Mr Boylan's constituency, was given to Enniskillen.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said there was disappointment in some Border counties that no major office of a cross-Border institution was being established in Monaghan or Cavan.

Mr Ahern said there had been representations from many towns and counties. They were all suitable, but it was just that there were not enough to go around.