The Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs Mary O’Rourke has vehemently rejected calls for her resignation and challenged Opposition party leaders to a public debate on the matter.
Mrs O’Rourke faces a vote of no-confidence in the Dáil tonight which was tabled by Fine Gael, Labour and Green parties.
The Minister was heavily criticised by the opposition parties in the Dáil last night, who claimed she had mismanaged State-sponsored companies such as Aer Lingus, CIE and Aer Rianta.
Fine Gael leader Mr Michael Noonan said the Minister for Public Enterprise had been "inappropriately titled" and said Mrs O’Rourke had stifled enterprise through indecision and failure to deliver.
"She has presided over major cost overruns, she has managed sometimes to achieve the exact opposite to what she intended, she has served sectional interests, and she has ignored the future while pandering to the short term needs," said Mr Nonnan.
However, Mrs O’Rourke responded strongly to the criticism and said her track record was the "the real record of progress" and demonstrated her ministerial achievements.
She said although much had been achieved by her Department, she freely admitted there were further challenges to face which she would tackle with "enthusiasm, dedication and vigour".
Mrs O’Rourke criticised leaders of all three Opposition parties in favour of her resignation and said they lacked vision and focus.
In particular Mrs O’Rourke attacked the Fine Gael leadership and said Mr Noonan had exhausted himself so much with his "campaign of whispering" to oust Mr John Bruton from power that he was now an "inert, inactive and unable" politician.