When he was Minister for Finance, Mr Ruairi Quinn introduced a new system where the main headlines of the proposed Finance Bill were published a few weeks in advance, in part to allow interested parties to make last minutes pleas for "clemency". The current Minister, Mr McCreevy, could have made better use of the system this year.

In the preliminary details of the Finance Bill, he indicated that little of importance would be included in the Bill itself beyond what had been signalled on Budget day.

But when the Bill was published, two new items immediately led to controversy. As a result, the Minister has had to back down completely on the new tax measures for credit unions, and has now staged a mini-retreat on the filing rules for the self-employed.

He might well have avoided both potholes, if he had signalled his intentions in advance. Instead the credit union tax issue is to be examined by a working party. And the new rules for the tax filing date for the self-employed will be discussed between the Minister and tax practitioners.

The industry itself is still unhappy, as it feels it will be faced with a fait accompli under the Minister's plan to include the new rules in the Bill, but make them subject to a commencement order.

To compound matters, both Mr McCreevy and the Taoiseach felt compelled to come out yesterday and defend their handling of the National Irish Bank issue against Opposition criticism.

In an interview on RTE's Prime Time this week, Mr McCreevy had appeared less than exercised about the NIB case. In a statement yesterday he said he regarded the issue as one of serious concern. Perhaps the Government is finally releasing just how deeply the public feel about the issue of offshore funds, first highlighted in the Ansbacher deposits.