Within minutes of Ray Burke embarking on a long and limited explanation of his receipt of a £30,000 political donation during the 1989 election campaign, Bertie Ahern's head dropped to his hands and Mary Harney's face took on a frozen aspect.

Yet the opposition parties were strangely reticent, almost delicate, in their approach to the controversy. They gently asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if an unsolicited donation of the size admitted had come as a surprise and what his reaction had been. They asked him how much money had been received by him during the course of the election campaign and they wondered how much money had been spent at that time.

Mr Burke either couldn't or wouldn't answer those questions. Instead, he quoted statements from Fine Gael, from Dick Spring and from Pat Rabbitte in his defence and warned his tormentors against undue enthusiasm in pursuing the matter. "We are setting precedents here in the Dail which everyone will regret in the future . . . I volunteered to come in here. I have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of," he said.

He had received the money in two sheafs of notes in separate envelopes, Mr Burke conceded, from a man he had never met before. He had not counted the amount until his benefactor had left. Afterwards, he had not contacted either the donor or his company to express his appreciation.

In presenting his carefully prepared case to the Dail, Mr Burke was at pains to emphasise that this was the largest donation he had ever received. He had given £10,000 of it to Fianna Fail headquarters and a further £7,000 to his constituency organisation, but he wouldn't say what other sums had been received. He found comfort in the fact that there were no rules or regulations concerning legitimate political donations in 1989, even though he was a government minister.

Mr Burke accepted that he had exposed himself to the risk of being the subject of malicious allegations by accepting the donation, even in good faith, but that was as far as it went. He looked for sympathetic understanding from his colleagues because of the false charges that had been made against him.

It was a strong performance on carefully chosen ground. He got better when he turned his fire on his critics in the media and he lapsed into tears when he invoked his dead father and listed the 54 unbroken years his family had served the Dail. It was a record of pride.

As for the Minister's present difficulties: no favours were done by him for JMSE, Bo vale Ltd, Mr Bailey, Mr Murphy or Mr Gogarty.

Then the Minister showed his teeth to Fine Gael. If favours were done for the two building firms concerned, he said, "I assume that any members of this House aware of any such decision will declare their knowledge to this House and any involvement they might have had in any such decision".

It didn't need a genius to work it out. Fine Gael had been delighted when the McCracken tribunal went after Charlie Haughey because of the money he had received from Ben Dunne, but it was Fine Gael ministers who suffered public excoriation at election time when they were seen to traipse through Dublin Castle to explain their receipt of money from Mr Dunne.

Mr Burke was no longer a member of Dublin County Council in 1989. He told the Dail he had actively campaigned against rezoning proposals for north Co Dublin when the County Development Plan was reviewed from 1991-93. As for an offshore account, he didn't have one.

The Minister was not flush with cash after the 1989 election. His "financial straits" were such that he had been forced to take out an overdraft of £35,000 to refurbish his house, build a tennis court and provide a new car for his wife.

Mr Burke found it all very intrusive and distasteful. Precedents were being created which would come back to haunt them. The good old Dail "club" would never be the same again.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party appeared to back off. There was no "smoking gun" or proof of illegal behaviour. The caution displayed in the Dail was carrying over into party deliberations.

Fine Gael was not "fully satisfied" but was keeping the issue under review. A Labour Party spokesman remarked slightingly on Mr Burke's "theatricals" and did not rule out the possibility of referring the matter to the new tribunal of inquiry.

The Progressive Democrats went into conclave and emerged to say that Mr Burke had "answered the questions". No new allegations had been made and no extra information had come to light. That seemed to be the end of the matter.

Democratic Left and the Green Party insisted that the payment to Mr Burke should be subject to the initial "sifting" process envisaged for the work of the new tribunal looking into the affairs of Charles Haughey and Michael Lowry. Such work could be done in private and, if there was nothing to justify a further inquiry, that would be the end of the matter.

We will not know until this evening whether Mr Burke and the Government parties are prepared to countenance such a development.