Mr Conor Lenihan (FF, Dublin South West) said that a former member of Fine Gael was about to face court charges relating to drug laundering. Addressing the Fine Gael spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Gay Mitchell, he said: "I defy Deputy Mitchell, who is to follow me here in this debate, to offer an explanation to this House as to why a former member of the party is now about to face charges in the courts."
Mr Lenihan added that it was an "absolute scandal". Mr Mitchell intervened: "Are you implying I have some knowledge of this?"
Mr Lenihan said he was not implying that Mr Mitchell had any information, but he might be able to offer an explanation, as he was part of the Fine Gael leadership.
"I would like to see an explanation from the Fine Gael party in relation to its relationship with certain underworld figures and whether in fact they have accepted contributions, financial or otherwise, from leading members of the organised crime community in this city."
He said the party should also ask Dr Garret FitzGerald if he was warned at any point about the criminal associations of any of its members. "That is an important issue that Fine Gael itself has to address. We in Fianna Fail have been pushed to address and answer almost every half allegation that can be levelled."
Mr Mitchell said that Mr Lenihan's remarks were a matter that the House might have to come back to on another occasion.
The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said it was sad that they had come to a stage where the basic courtesies were denied a family burying a brother. Mr Bruton had come into the House, in a typical over-the-top fashion, questioning other people's judgment, and "descends into the political sewer a second time."
Without any evidence, Mr Bruton was seeking to say that there were other members of the Government who were, prima facie, guilty of some wrongdoing because of past associations. Mr Michael Finucane (FG, Limerick West) said that Mr Cowen's rhetoric was sad, and his reference to a sewer was a disgrace.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said that what the memory of civil war could not eradicate in the party of Cosgrave and Mulcahy had died in the party of Bruton and Owen in resentment at the loss of office. "Common decency in its most basic form involves a suspension of political and personal vendettas at times of bereavement."
He added that strong views had been expressed in the House in recent weeks on the public interest in having certain questions answered. He accepted that there was a legitimate public interest in the way those who had political power, local or national, exercised it.
But it was no longer governments alone which exercised that power or decided the course of events. Outside the House, there was another power with little defined accountability - the national media - which had played a part in Mr Burke's decision to resign. There seemed to him to be a legitimate public interest in getting answers from the media to certain questions.
"Did a national newspaper which ran a story on passports on Saturday last have before it an internal memorandum from the Department of Justice which it published on Monday?"
The media, said Mr McCreevy, had expressed worries about politicians being bought, being manipulated by private business. "Cash is not the only currency that corrupts. Has the desire for a scoop, a good story or a naked display of influence stopped them from facing up to the real and serious questions of who and why?
"Who and why has financed the attempt by a firm of solicitors in Newry to dig up dirt on politicians? Who and why has been so forthcoming with documents purloined from one of the most sensitive Departments of State? To what extent was the readiness of journalists to run with every bit of tittle tattle about Ray Burke the result of his activities in a previous political incarnation when, as Minister for Communications, he upset personnel in RTE?"
The leader of Democratic Left, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, said that his party never once called for Mr Burke's resignation. "We did express serious concern about his ability to function effectively as a Minister against the background of the controversies that were threatening to swamp him."
He said that last month the party suggested that rather than requiring him to resign, the Government should temporarily delegate his functions to another member of the Cabinet. "Once again, the Taoiseach threw the offer back in our face, refusing to even consider it."
Mr De Rossa said that the Tanaiste's "undignified gallop, within the space of a few weeks, from being one of Mr Burke's greatest defenders to the desperate attempts over the weekend to put clear water between her party and the former Minister, represented one of the most spectacular political retreats in recent Irish politics."
He believed that Mr Burke did the correct thing in resigning as minister for foreign affairs. "I do not understand why he felt compelled to resign from the Dail. I hope that in the fullness of time he will give us the full story."