THE Fianna Fail spokesman on justice called on the Minister to resign.

Mr John O'Donoghue said the Minister's role in the matter was the most abysmal of all. She had been a party to a Government decision relating to Mr Justice Lynch and it was her political responsibility to the people to implement it.

"Because you failed to implement that decision, I would humbly take the view that you have little alternative now but to do the honourable thing and resign your position."

The Special Criminal Court dealt with the most sensitive cases in the State and one would have thought that the Minister would, at the very least, know from public soundings, or the media, that a judge was sitting there, although the Government had agreed to his request for delisting.

He said that the Tanaiste had wagged his finger in the direction of the Minister, stating that the affair was embarrassing. "We have been used to furtive whisperings from An Tanaiste, but it would appear he has decided to come into the sunlight and state publicly in no uncertain terms that he has lost confidence in the Minister for Justice."

Who, he asked, in the Government of so called openness, transparency and accountability was going to stand up and admit to responsibility for the "disgrace"? It would appear that the Government was going to check on every official in the Department of Justice who knew anything about the matter, and abdicate its own responsibility.

Neither the Minister for Justice, nor the Taoiseach, nor any member of the Cabinet, was entitled to escape from responsibility, Mr O'Donoghue said. But because it was the Minister for Justice's duty to ensure that serious decisions were carried out, the buck stopped with her.

It had to be remembered, he added, that the previous administration fell because a civil servant did not bring to the attention of his then boss, the attorney general, the existence of a file in the attorney general's office.

"I am entitled to pose the question now to the Tanaiste is he going to insist on the same level of accountability, openness and transparency he insisted upon then? I want to ask the Minister for Social Welfare, Deputy De Rossa, who trumpeted high standards in the Opposition benches in this House over a protracted period of time, whether he, too, is going to attempt to escape political responsibility in this matter."

The truth of the matter was that an entire Government failed to implement its own decision because of the dereliction of duty of the Minister for Justice. "This would be a joke in a banana republic. And it is a joke in this Republic. And somebody, somewhere, has to pay for that joke."

The PD spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said that the figure of justice was usually portrayed as blindfolded, to symbolise impartiality. "In the case of the present Minister, the blindfold might more accurately explain the way in which she blunders, unseeing, from one crisis to the next. We have a Minister who flies blind, oblivious to disasters. Not only does she not see trouble coming, but when she finds herself in the thick of it, all we get is minimal accountability."

In the past, said Ms O'Donnell, the Minister had failed to recognise the public demand for tough action against crime she failed to see that the rash of unsolved gangland killings would create a situation where criminals would imagine they could shoot anyone who got in their way, a garda or a journalist.

In the current controversy, what took place was reminiscent of what happened in the Brendan Smyth affair relating to correspondence. Officials in her Department had confiscated the Minister's post and dealt with it without bringing very serious matters to her attention.

It had now transpired that since midsummer the Special Criminal Court had been operating with a judge who was no longer validly a member, so that all its actions were tainted with illegality.

The result was the farcical situation of 15 prisoners being "released" from the cells into the prison yard, and then re arrested and brought at considerable expense under heavy armed guard to Dublin, in an attempt to validate their detention.

The Special Criminal Court dealt with some of the most serious crimes known in law, said Ms O'Donnell. Among the prisoners involved were those arrested in connection with the recent arms finds in Donegal and Laois and the shooting of Garda McCabe.

Earlier, on the Order of Business, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said it seemed to his party that when it came to the criminal justice system the Government lacked commitment and seemed to have no co ordination.

The Taoiseach said that the Minister for Justice would later report to the House on the matter.

"I wish to say that this is, of course, a serious matter. It is acknowledged as being serious and it is treated as being serious. I would hope that everybody will treat it in that responsible and serious fashion."

Asked by the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, if the Government had concluded its deliberations on the report by Mrs Justice Susan, Denham, recommending an independent commission to administer the court system, the Taoiseach said that it had been accepted in principle.