Taoiseach Bertie Ahern attacked the Opposition and defended Minister for Health Mary Harney during heated and noisy exchanges in the Dáil confidence debate.
"I do not need to remind this House of the range of her political achievements over many years of public service," Mr Ahern said. The public, the women affected, their families, and members of the House, had a right to be informed as soon as information became available on a matter of such gravity.
"But I have not been impressed by the rush of judgment to attribute blame, and to call for heads, despite knowing full well the extent of the careful analysis which was being undertaken to establish precisely what happened and why, the impossibility of drawing firm conclusions without such evidence.
"The pressure has been for immediate judgment and the exacting of the highest possible political price to the advantage of the Opposition. This is little more than playing political games with the tragedy of these women and their families.
"It has seen appalling disregard for basic facts and even a misrepresentation of the standard of accuracy which might be expected in various procedures."
Tánaiste Brian Cowen insisted there had been real improvements in the health service and said the problem, the real issue, had always been that "the argument was about where the service might be rather than what is the quality of service to be provided".
There were many resistors to change and no more so than in the health service.
"We have a Minister for Health who is involved in change, who wants to bring about reform," Mr Cowen said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the news that 97 women needed further medical examination, but had not been told, exploded the myth of Mary Harney: the tough, effective and caring Minister who was on top of her job.
"The decision to delay informing these women until the HSE had the 'cohort' they required and the reference to women 'jamming up the lines' revealed the cold hard truth of the Irish health service under Minister Harney." .
He added that the "surge of action on Friday when the Minister's political neck was on the line demonstrated where her priorities lay, the protection of her political career".
Minister for the Environment and Green Party leader John Gormley said it was outrageous and "utterly unacceptable" that the women recalled for surgical review found out about it on the radio.
Mr Gormley said the HSE "needed to be turned upside down. We need root-and-branch reform," he said and he believed Ms Harney would conduct that reform.
The Minister said they owed a great debt of gratitude to the nurse who was the whistleblower in this situation, and he said that sacking the Minister would give the Opposition "a political scalp", but it would not improve the situation of the women affected.
Mr Gormley also backed the Minister's call for a bipartisan approach to cancer, pointing out that there did not appear to be a great difference between the political parties on health. There was a need for such an approach because the number of people with cancer would double over the next 15 years.
Liz McManus (Lab, Wicklow) said there was "an impression being given out that Minister Harney has to stay because no one else wants the job. Quite apart from the obvious point that those of us on this side of the House would take on the challenge willingly, it is a telling comment on the paucity of Government talent that no one feels they could do better than the incumbent.
"Look at the record. The hospital beds, the medical cards, the consultant contract, the community nursing beds, the hygiene standards, the accountability. All promised. None delivered."
Jack Wall (Lab, Kildare South) said the HSE appeared to be "afloat in the ocean with no one in control of it". But he asked, "who created the boat, but the Minister", but she did not want to recognise this.
Seán Sherlock (Lab, Cork East) said the culture that now prevailed in the politics of health "is one where responsibility is passed from the executive to the bureaucratic and where political responsibility is non existent".