The Labour leader said his party supported the demand that an Oireachtas committee investigate the granting of the second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone.

Mr Ruairi Quinn made his announcement during exchanges on the Order of Business.

He asked the Taoiseach if he thought it was totally inappropriate that Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats should retain the benefit of £50,000 donations from Mr Denis O'Brien in the context of the investigation.

"Does the Taoiseach propose to give it back, given the circumstances?"

He asked if Mr Ahern considered it contradictory for Fianna Fail and the PDs to call for an investigation into the granting of the licence "while continuing to be the beneficiaries of a gift of £50,000 each from the person who won that licence".

Mr Ahern said: "Whatever work goes on at the committee, it will get on with its business. I am not going to get into an argument about who gave what contribution. That is not relevant."

The Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said his party had no difficulty with the matter being referred to the committee.

He asked Mr Ahern to request the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, to examine the relevant files, which had now been in her possession for 3 1/2 years.

"Will she bring to the attention of the House anything within those files she regards as suspicious? It seems rich to me to refer something to a committee when the documentation that supports it has been in the possession of the Government for almost four years."

Mr Ahern said he was sure that the Minister and the Department would co-operate. "There are many other areas in which tribunals have contacted departments regarding files - there are least 10 such areas - and I am sure that will happen in this case as well."