It was black, black comedy. The Irish beef trade was going down the tubes because of an international health scare linked to mad cow disease. And Mr Ned O'Keeffe, champion of the agricultural sector, was being challenged to explain why potentially infectious material had been compounded and fed to pigs on his family's farm.

Not only had meat-and-bone meal been used, but the Minister of State had rejected a Labour Party motion to ban the foodstuff in the Dail last week. Furthermore, he had done so without mentioning an interest in a meat-and-bone meal compounding plant on the farm, or that it was licensed by the Government to use such material.

As on previous occasions when his ministers blundered into trouble, Bertie Ahern didn't want to know. But the issue is so hot in terms of consumer confidence and the welfare of the agricultural sector that political slippage is inevitable.

Brendan Howlin was looking for blood. Ministerial blood. Nothing less than the sacking of the Minister of State for Agriculture would satisfy the Labour Party.

Not only was there an unacceptable conflict of interests involved in his current job, Mr Howlin declared, but Mr O'Keeffe had failed properly to advise the Dail under the Ethics in Public Office Act.

Fine Gael was rushing to catch up with the consumer bandwagon. But the party was still pulling its punches. John Bruton suggested a ministerial transfer as suitable punishment for Mr O'Keeffe.

And - as advertised to journalists - Alan Dukes "went ballistic" when some of his questions were ruled out of order by the Leas Ceann Comhairle. Rory O'Hanlon had been around for long enough to recognise an exaggerated Dail protest when he saw it. And, as Mr Dukes wailed that Mr Ahern had abdicated all responsibility for the behaviour of his junior minister, Mr O'Hanlon coldly informed him that he was "trying to pre-empt what Deputy Howlin was going to raise under another heading".

Sure enough, the Labour Party TD sought to adjourn the Dail so that Mr Ahern might deal fully with the matter and the conflicts of interest that arose. He was joined by Trevor Sargent of the Green Party, who wanted to know why Mr O'Keeffe shouldn't resign, given the damage that had been done to consumer confidence.

But the shutters came down. There would be no debate. In the absence of the Taoiseach, Michael Woods took time off from handling the teachers' dispute to hand off the opposition. As far as he was concerned, Mr O'Keeffe had answered all relevant questions and nothing illegal had been done.

It had been quite in order to feed meat-and-bone meal to non-ruminant animals until European Union ministers had changed the rules earlier this week.

And that was the nub of it. The rules had changed because of an international health scare. And consumer pressure was growing. The meat market was collapsing, particularly in beef.

Even as they spoke, Mr O'Keeffe's immediate boss - Joe Walsh - was winging his way to Egypt to try to get the government there to reopen its market to Irish animals. Here at home the Government was trying to get to grips with the magnitude of the problem.

Even when meat markets eventually recovered, the ban on meat-and-bone meal foodstuffs would probably remain. That would involve the annual disposal of 140,000 tonnes of material and the construction of at least one incinerator. TROUBLE, writ large.

The last time Mr O'Keeffe grabbed the public interest it involved the Walt Disney film Babe, and was light-hearted. Back in 1995, pork consumption fell internationally when the public took a shine to the little talking pig Babe, and Mr O'Keeffe suggested the Irish public should stay away from the cinema.

Yesterday, however, the Minister of State was the man in the gap defending the interests of Irish agriculture. The consumer crisis now affecting beef was blamed on the French and German governments.

It was as if this State didn't have the second-highest rate of BSE infection in the EU, had not exported large quantities of meat-and-bone meal, and had not fed it to non-ruminant animals here at home. Signs of denial all round.

In all of this, Mr O'Keeffe was a liability. His behaviour had exposed the State and its food safety programme to negative comment.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party will now ask the Public Offices Commission to rule on the ethical elements of his behaviour. Inevitably, there will be further confusion. But a political waking of Ned O'Keeffe seems on the cards.