There is no agreement, written or otherwise, between the Government and Ms Beverley Cooper-Flynn, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has insisted.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said that being expelled from the Fianna Fail parliamentary party seemed to be "mere tokenism".

Mr Ahern said, however, that "no member of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party likes to be expelled from the party. Being out of the party carries substantive penalties for the deputy."

Mr Noonan had asked about the Mayo TD's attendance at a recent briefing given by the Taoiseach and two Ministers of State for Fianna Fail Mayo Oireachtas members.

"What rights and privileges which are extended to Fianna Fail deputies are deprived of Deputy Cooper-Flynn other than the right to attend the parliamentary party meeting?" he asked.

Mr Ahern said a meeting, not a briefing, had been rearranged for the day of the Fianna Fail party meeting to expel Ms Cooper-Flynn to another day. She was to attend the first meeting to put forward views about her constituency and, as she was one of the people who asked for the meeting, she attended the rescheduled one. "It was nothing more than that."

When the Ceann Comhairle intervened and said the Taoiseach was not responsible to the House for Fianna Fail party matters, Mr Noonan said he was answerable for his actions as Taoiseach. It was not an exceptional incident, said Mr Noonan, who was trying to establish what sanction there was other than losing the right to attend parliamentary party meetings.

"No member of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party likes to be expelled from the party," Mr Ahern said. "The whole basis of the party's operation and contact with it is precluded from such people on a day-to-day basis."