The Government has "full support" for Commissioner Padraig Flynn "in the exercise of his European functions", according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Mr Andrews was the leading speaker for the Government in a low-key debate on a Fine Gael Private Member's Motion calling on Mr Flynn to give a full and immediate response to the allegations that he received a donation of £50,000 from Mr Tom Gilmartin in 1989.
Meanwhile, the Government will review its Dail strategy on the motion today in an effort to accommodate Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn's position in tonight's vote. Despite separate meetings last night with the Taoiseach and the Government Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, she has not divulged her voting intentions.
Ms Cooper-Flynn told The Irish Times last night: "I have made up my mind. I don't want to comment on it at the moment". Following yesterday's Cabinet meeting, the Government proposed an amendment to the Fine Gael motion.
Noting the necessity for the tribunal to be allowed complete its work, the Government is calling on Mr Flynn to make a full statement clarifying his position in relation to allegations he received £50,00 while Minister for the Environment in 1989.
This amendment was countered by a Fine Gael amendment to its own motion, resolving to consider the issue again within three weeks. The party had previously suggested that the Dail should consider whether Mr Flynn should remain in office if he did not make a statement within two weeks.
Watched by the former PD leader, Mr Des O'Malley, from a seat on the back benches, Mr Andrews said that while he had known Mr Flynn for many years and liked him, "if Padraig Flynn is guilty of wrongdoing, and it is my fervent hope that he is not, then he must and will face the consequences".
The thrust of Mr Andrews's speech was that the motion "may well" constitute an attempted political interference in the ongoing work of a tribunal. It also attempted to establish in a roundabout way the jurisdiction of theDail over a European public official.
Regretting the necessity to hold the debate because Mr Flynn had been an excellent EU Commissioner who had served the EU well, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, criticised the Taoiseach for never asking Mr Flynn the obvious question.
Explaining the reason he had phoned Mr Glimartin, Mr Bruton said: "Some may say that I should not have rung Mr Gilmartin myself, but either should have asked a third party to phone him or have just relied on my own recollections only to say I had not met him. That is a matter of judgment. But that is not my approach."
He added: "I wanted an answer based on my own direct knowledge, not information from third parties of the kind relied on by the Taoiseach in his Dail speech and in answer to press queries about his contacts with Mr Gilmartin."
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, denied media reports that the party had entered into negotiations with the Government on this motion.
He said that, if the Fine Gael amendment was accepted, it would allow the Dail to give its opinion on the Commissioner's behaviour and allow them to return to the matter "if even that ignominy doesn't generate a response from the Commissioner".
Mr Quinn said Mr Flynn should know that the longer a cloud hung over him and his former party he ran the risk of becoming a lame-duck commissioner.
