The Government was sharply criticised by the Opposition during the debate on the Bill extending the terms of reference of the Flood tribunal. The Fine Gael justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, said if the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform had accepted an Opposition amendment last April, the Bill would not be necessary. The legislative powers would already be in place to enable the Attorney General to go to Mr Justice Flood and ask him to agree to accept a widening of the terms of reference to investigate payments to Mr Ray Burke.

He said the changed terms of reference would have to be clear and comprehensive, enabling the tribunal to investigate all policy decisions by Mr Burke as a Minister between 1987 and 1992 to ascertain whether decisions taken by him could have been influenced in any way by payments he or the Fianna Fail party received in that period.

"We want the tribunal to establish the reason, the real reason, why Princes Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Independent Newspapers, was granted lucrative MMDS licences either directly or as shareholders in companies which held licences in all but two of the 29 cells for which licences were offered and awarded.

"We want to know why Mr Ray Burke as Minister agreed to all the main terms sought by Independent Newspapers in the granting of exclusive MMDS licences. We want to know the reason why Mr Burke insisted on signing and dispatching from his office the letter of comfort to Mr Joe Hayes, managing director of Independent Newspapers.

"We want to know the reason why the Minister departed from official advice in providing `written assurances' sought by Mr Hayes. We want to know what was the motivation behind Mr Burke's assurance to allow existing franchise-holders not alone to apply for a renewal of their 10-year licence, three years after the MMDS systems were established, but to also offer them comfort.

"We want to know why another O'Reilly-owned company, the Fitzwilton subsidiary, Rennicks, visited Mr Burke's home with a cheque made out to cash for £30,000. We are led to believe that no favours were sought or given.

"Does Mr Ahern or Mr Burke seriously expect us to believe that somebody would arrive at your home with £30,000, either in cash or by way of a cheque made out to cash, and do so out of a sense of admiration for the recipient's principles or prowess with absolutely no strings attached?

"Much play has been made of the fact that the Rennicks proposal for Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, for which a £4.2 million grant was approved, did not go ahead. However, we want to know if there is any link between the Rennicks £30,000 payment to Mr Burke and the fact that the company was approved for £240,000 in grant aid in 1988, of which it drew £180,000.

"We want to know if the delivery of the £30,000 cheque to Mr Burke in 1988 by Mr Robin Rennicks and Mr Paul Power, who were senior executives respectively of Rennicks and Novum, had anything to do with the fact that in 1989 Novum got £10,000 in grants from Forbairt and received a total of £478,000 in grants up to 1996."

Mr Higgins said Mr Burke's involvement in the granting of Irish citizenship to 11 Saudi Arabian and Pakistani nationals, two of whom were involved in the biggest banking scandal in history, was of particular interest.

"Was the fact that these were people dealing in millions of dollars or pounds, as the case may be, a factor in ensuring that the then Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, took a very personal interest in their passport applications?

"Was the fact that these were monied people with access to vast millions, instrumental in the unprecedented step of having their certificates of naturalisation signed personally at his home in Swords by the then Minister for Justice, Mr Burke? "Was the fact that these people were millionaires a factor in dispensing with the requirement that fees must be paid on the issue of the naturalisation certificates, in the setting aside of the requirement of a declaration of fidelity to the State, in dispensing with the residency requirement, in accepting applications for citizenship on wrong forms and in the failure to insist on definite and adequate investment proposals?

"Are we to take it that Mr Burke and Mr Haughey acted in splendid isolation? Are we expected to believe that Cabinet colleagues, including the present Taoiseach and other members to the forefront of this Government, did not know or were oblivious to what was going on?"

Mr Higgins said the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, had been aware of the welter of rumour and innuendo surrounding Mr Burke, but she had still "waltzed" into government with Fianna Fail. "The reality is that the PDs of today are no longer the PDs of yesteryear."

The Labour spokesman on justice, Dr Pat Upton, said the Government's approach to Mr Justice Flood's request for an amendment to the tribunal's terms of reference was "bizarre, unbelievable, lazy and ludicrous". The Government's threadbare defence for refusing to extend the terms of reference of Moriarty to include investigation of the Ansbacher accounts was blown apart by Mr Justice Flood's request.

"Since it became clear to the Minister that the provisions of his initial Bill would not be countenanced by either tribunal, the Minister has seen his desperate ploy to protect the Ansbacher account-holders from public scrutiny unfold before his eyes."

Dr Upton said that there was no need for legislation to amend the terms of reference - the power was vested in the Oireachtas.

Mr Pat Rabbitte (DL, Dublin South West) said the reason the House had to return to the issue was because the Government had adopted the narrowest possible approach to amending the law last March. The Government amendment had allowed only for the terms of reference to be changed where the tribunal itself had requested it.

"But once again, the Government has taken the narrowest possible approach to the amending legislation, effectively allowing only the Government to initiate the process of change, because it is conditional on consultations between the tribunal and the Attorney General `on behalf of the Minister', effectively excluding the Dail from the entire process."