An investigation into the handling of the court release of five drugs suspects will be carried out if there are "matters which were dealt with inadequately in any way by the authorities", the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, told the Dail.

In an acrimonious debate the Minister repeatedly said he had no function or powers in relation to the decisions of the courts.

But opposition deputies accused the Minister of failing to answer questions about the release by the District Court of the five men questioned about the seizure in Dublin of cannabis worth £3 million.

Throughout the exchanges the Leas-Ceann Comhairle, Mr Rory O'Hanlon, had to repeatedly ask deputies to resume their seats and allow the Minister to speak.

Amid repeated jeers and heckling Mr O'Donoghue began his own attack on the opposition. "There is no more nauseating spectacle I would suggest than the opposition parties, and in particular the main opposition party, trying to make political capital out of a matter which they clearly know is a judicial function."

He said there was no comparison between this case and the controversy during the previous Government's administration over the delisting of Justice Dominic Lynch from the Special Criminal Court.

However, Mr Pat Rabbitte (DL, Dublin South West) said "there is no analogy with the Justice Dominic Lynch case because nobody walked free in that incident".

Ms Liz McManus (DL, Wicklow) asked the Minister to confirm reports that there was no legal representative of the State when the Garda made the application to extend the detention order.

"The Minister is responsible for the failure of the State to be represented and, had that been done, the situation with the release of five suspects would not have occurred," she said.

The Minister said he would not become involved in responding to anybody on how a decision was reached.

He later said he had had no notice of the question and he would have to investigate the matter and would reply in detail to the deputy.

"I would be greatly distressed to hear that it could be the case that the State was not represented in the court." Mr O'Donoghue said he did not have the information.

"If there are questions to be answered then they will be and there will be a full statement of that effect," he added. He again said he was not in a position to be responsible for court decisions.

Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, said nobody was suggesting the Minister should interfere with the judicial function or in any way tamper with the courts.

"So let's remove that fig leaf, that guise and that ruse and that herring once and for all."

He asked at what stage the Garda became aware of doubts about the validity of the warrants to extend the detention, and when the Minister became aware.

Mr O'Donoghue said he first became aware of the issue on Wednesday. He said that if there were matters which were dealt with inadequately in any way by the authorities then this would be thoroughly investigated.

Outlining the details of recent events he said that the five suspects, arrested under the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act, were detained for an initial 48 hours. Gardai then obtained a warrant from the District Court extending the detention for a further 72 hours.

It later "became apparent to the gardai and the DPP that the District Court judge had not been nominated for the purpose of the Act".

By that time the Garda and the DPP had sufficient evidence to make an arrest for the purpose of bringing charges. He said the judge refused to allow the re-arrest of the suspects and ordered their release. The judge later refused to issue warrants for the arrest of the suspects.

"Clearly there is a legal issue to be resolved urgently and in this context I understand that the DPP has already taken steps to instruct counsel to seek an urgent High Court order of `mandamus'."

It was open to the suspects to make a High Court application for release. Should this happen the matter would be challenged, he said.

When Mr Pat Upton (Lab, Dublin South Central) asked him what the nature of the investigation would be and when he would report on it, the Minister replied that he would deal with it in so far as he could.

Mr O'Donoghue repeated that the courts had made the decision on the releases on the basis of the 1996 Act. He would not comment on decisions by the judiciary.

Mr John Gormley (Green, Dublin South East) asked if the Minister would give serious consideration to amending the legislation.

The Minister said if he were to state that the legislation was defective it would clearly interfere with the course of the case in court.

He stressed that he was not blaming the President of the District Court or the District Court judge. It was a matter of the utmost importance.

He was not going to come into the House under the cloak of privilege and start laying the blame, he said to shouts from the opposition benches of "That makes a change".

Mr Rabbitte described the Minister's responses as the "most feeble-minded and pathetic" appearance of any minister he had seen in the House. "We are in a situation where you were the Bull McCabe on this side of the House and Chicken George in Government."

Mr O'Donoghue said he had explained the facts of the case as best he could but "clearly what is going on here is an entirely different agenda and has nothing at all to do with the release of people concerned. This has to do with the failure of the then rainbow coalition to delist Judge Dominic Lynch from the Special Criminal Court. It is a political game - it is gamesmanship of the worst kind."

Deputies "from across the House are trying to imply that I as Minister had some responsibility in this area. Had the Act provided for the Minister of Justice to nominate judges for this purpose and had there been a failure on my part to do so then I would accept responsibility. However, the Act does not make such provision or demand on the Minister."

He said it was outrageous for Fine Gael "to come in here to try to make me accountable for the actions of a constitutionally independent judiciary".

He added: "The moral and political cowardice which was a defining feature of the rainbow and which manifested itself in the unrelenting search for scapegoats to cover their skins will not be a feature of this administration."

He regretted that "this serious issue about which people have a right to be concerned has been used to attempt to blame me for something in relation to which I have neither function nor power".