There was no question of the Taoiseach "intimidating" the Minister for Arts, Ms de Valera, over the location of the Abbey Theatre, the Dail was told.
The Taoiseach "does not intimidate his Ministers. That is not his approach," said Ms de Valera.
She said there were concerns that the Grand Canal Basin site on offer for relocating the Abbey did not seem to have the necessary space for the proposals put forward by the board of the National Theatre Society.
She had asked the Office of Public Works and Dublin Corporation, in consultation with the theatre, to explore the possibility of acquiring additional land adjacent to the existing site.
She expected to have a report within the next few weeks, after which she would be able to make a considered decision.
The Minister was responding to Fine Gael's new arts spokesman, Mr Dinny McGinley, during arts questions, who stressed that the facilities available to the theatre were even more important than its location.
Mr McGinley asked if the Taoiseach had made representations about the Abbey's location in the debate about its development as the national theatre.
"I hope that when the decision is made, whenever that will be, she will not be intimidated by the Taoiseach's wishes to maintain the theatre in his parish, if not his constituency, in spite of historic connotations," said Mr McGinley.
Ms de Valera said the Taoiseach had made known his views on the options and preferences for the Abbey in a press statement. The theatre was in the Taoiseach's constituency.
The Minister added that she had made her preference known from early on that "there would be a complete refurbishment of the site and a radical approach to addressing the facilities on the existing site".
The OPW analysed the merits of moving the theatre to the Grand Canal Basin site but in its report expressed concern that "the site on offer at Grand Canal Basin may not fully fulfil the brief of requirements as outlined by the board of the National Theatre Society".
The basin site did not seem to have the necessary space, and all of those matters had to be taken into account.
Outlining the history of plans to develop the city-centre theatre, Ms de Valera said she wanted to support the board of the National Theatre in its plans to create an Abbey Theatre "which can look with confidence to affirming its role at the heart of theatrical development in Ireland".
The board submitted a number of options to her in 1999 regarding the redevelopment of the theatre.
"At that time its preferred option was for the development of the theatre at its existing location. While it was clear in the proposals that the existing site was limited in scope, it was intended that these limitations would be minimised with imaginative design and the maximum use of space."