The Government and Opposition appeared to be at a standoff last night over the handling of a Dail motion on Mr Liam Lawlor.
The Government is to table a motion on Tuesday, when the Dail returns after the Christmas recess, calling on Mr Lawlor to co-operate fully with the Flood Tribunal within the time-frame set out by the High Court, and to resign from the Dail voluntarily if he does not do so.
There is also a motion to replace Mr Lawlor on the Oireachtas Committees on Public Enterprise and Transport, and on Finance and the Public Service with two Fianna Fail TDs, Mr Ben Briscoe and Mr Sean Power.
However, Fine Gael is unhappy with the time which has been allocated to debate the motion. A party spokesman said last night that they would seek to amend the motion on resignation.
The Government says that both motions would be debated on Tuesday afternoon for 2 1/2 hours. However, the Fine Gael spokesman said that since the Dail had not been in session for seven weeks and that a substantial amount of time would have to be given over to the order of business on the first day back, there would not be nearly enough time.
The party wants the motion on membership of the committees debated on Tuesday, with a further 2 1/2 hours to the other motion on Wednesday. The party whips are to meet on Monday night, when the Opposition members are expected to voice their objections.
It is not known whether Mr Lawlor will speak during the debate next week, although sources close to him have suggested that he will contribute.
Fine Gael is expected to table a motion relating to its opposition to the National Stadium during its private member's time next week. And the Labour Party is to table a motion ail calling for the introduction of a new code of conduct for TDs.
The party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said yesterday that the Lawlor controversy had demonstrated the almost total absence of powers available to the Dail to deal with situations where members had acted in an unacceptable and unethical manner.
"While all members are, of course, subject to the ultimate sanction of rejection by the electorate, I believe that there should be an enforceable code of conduct setting out certain basic standards of conduct that it is reasonable to expect members of the Dail to uphold."
On Wednesday, at the PDs' weekly parliamentary party meeting, the Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, announced that she was preparing proposals on a code of conduct for Oireachtas members.