As the Dail prepares to resume tomorrow amid the controversy raised by property developer Mr Tom Gilmartin, Opposition parties have focused their attack on the Tanaiste.
Fine Gael and Labour joined forces yesterday in identifying what they described as Ms Harney's illogical approach to Mr Gilmartin's claims.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said there was also "a fundamental contradiction" at the heart of the Taoiseach's handling of the allegations.
"On the one hand, Mr Ahern is treating these allegations as serious and credible enough for him to use them as a basis for a call by him to a member of the European Commission for a public response.
"On the other hand, the Taoiseach is entirely rejecting the account given by the same Mr Gilmartin of his dealings with himself," Mr Bruton added.
Reserving his admonitions for the Tanaiste, the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said her remark that Mr Flynn's position as Commissioner was "impossible", raised more questions than it answered.
"In a reference to Mr Gilmartin's allegations, the Tanaiste stated that she had `no reason not to believe him'. If this is the case then, should it not logically follow that she accepts the serious allegations Mr Gilmartin is making against the Taoiseach?" he asked.
Ms Harney had belatedly accepted his contention that Mr Flynn must clear up the contradiction between his public comments and those of Mr Gilmartin. This Government's stability had as much to do with Ms Harney's refusal to ask hard questions as it had with her relationship with the Taoiseach.
Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Michael Noonan, said it was not tenable for the Government to "just relax . . . this will be OK in due course". It was difficult to see how Ms Harney could believe Mr Gilmartin's claims involving Mr Flynn yet not those involving Mr Ahern.
"I do not know how she can believe him in a certain set of statements and not in the other," Mr Noonan added. Both the Taoiseach and Tanaiste were using Mr Flynn's difficulties as a "smokescreen" to obscure their own problems arising from Mr Gilmartin's allegations, he said.
If Ms Harney believed the Taoiseach, she should stay in Government with Fianna Fail; if she did not believe him, her party could not, since it was "the function of the Progressive Democrats to keep the Government honest".
"She can't have it both ways", he added.
Green Party criticism focused on Mr Flynn's position as Commissioner. The party's Dublin South East TD, Mr John Gormley, said it was no longer tenable "given his failure" to make a clear statement on Mr Gilmartin's allegations. He called on the Government to seek Mr Flynn's removal under Article 160 of the European Treaty establishing the EU.
"If Commissioner Flynn does not deny the allegations that he received £50,000 or that he tampered with witnesses, before the Dail reconvenes, then the Government must do everything within its power to remove him from office," Mr Gormley said.
No state has sought the removal of a Commissioner through the Council of Ministers under Article 160.