Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has supported the Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea, following allegations that he sought to fight a man in a pub in Limerick after a row.
Downplaying the controversy, Mr Ahern said: "I think Willie O'Dea is a very good Minister and is a very good deputy and is well known and is legendary for the fact that he is out and about in his constituency all of the time.
"It would be surprising if now and again politicians if they are out and about in the constituency don't have the odd spat. But I know that Willie denies any abusive language. This is the normal cut and thrust.
"What happens in the weekend in constituencies isn't something that I am going to get myself into," the Taoiseach told journalists in Dublin yesterday morning.
However, Mr O'Dea's relations with the people who made the allegations against him, John Fahey and Geraldine Morrissey, deteriorated further last night.
Speaking on Newstalk's The Right Hook, Mr O'Dea said he would not stand by and watch his reputation be tarnished by people who had told lies about him.
Responding, Ms Morrissey, a member of the Shannon Action Group, said the situation had now worsened because the Minister for Defence "is now saying that I am a liar".
Last night, Mr Michael McNamara, present in WJ South's pub last Saturday night at the time of the alleged incident, supported Mr O'Dea's version of events. Mr McNamara said he had noticed two individuals shout "Shannon, Shannon" as Mr O'Dea left the pub with the Tánaiste, Brian Cowen.
On Mr O'Dea's return, Mr McNamara said the Minister engaged with the group, but Mr McNamara said he saw no sign that an altercation had occurred.
"I think it has been blown out of all proportion. The pub was completely jammed. There was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had taken place," he told The Irish Times last night.
Meanwhile, Mr Fahey rejected allegations that he and Ms Morrissey had "hawked" the story to the media. "We didn't do that. I can assure you on a stack of bibles, I didn't call any media person whatsoever. The first contact I had with the media was when Jimmy Wolfe from the Irish Examiner phoned me recently. I know him, I have respect for him.
"I told him the truth and I'm standing over the truth and I have witnesses to that effect." Standing over his version of events, Mr Fahey said he had written down a note of the exchange when he returned home on Saturday night.
"I'm so certain in myself because when I went home I wrote everything down just if there was any repercussions as a result of this because it is not every day that a Minister abuses a citizen so I wrote it down."