THERE were sharp exchanges between the Taoiseach and the Fianna Pail spokesman on justice when the confidence debate spilled over into Question Time.
Mr John O'Donoghue provoked a heated response from Mr Bruton when he said: "There is not a reasonable person in this country who would believe that the Minister for Justice was not aware the problem in the Special Criminal Court prior to the Attorney General's letter of November 1st.
The Taoiseach accused Mr O'Donoghue of effectively saying that Mrs Owen was telling an untruth. "And I utterly reject that. The Minister for Justice has stated when she first became aware of this problem. And she told the truth."
He said it was inappropriate and quite disorderly for Mr O'Donoghue to suggest that the Minister had not told the truth, and he asked him to withdraw it.
The Ceann Comhairle, Mr Sean Treacy, said that if Mr O'Donoghue had attributed a deliberate untruth to the Minister, he felt sure that, in retrospect, he would want to withdraw it.
Mr O'Donoghue said he had made a political charge, and he was entitled to draw whatever conclusion he wished from inquiries he made of the Taoiseach on matters of legitimate public concern.
When the Taoiseach insisted that Mr O'Donoghue did have something to withdraw, Mr O'Donoghue repeated that he had made a political charge "withdraw any personal imputation, but I stand over the political charge."
After some further exchanges, Mr Treacy said he thought he had clarified the matter to the best of his ability and that it should be to"the satisfaction of the House.
Earlier, Mr Bruton said that in his second letter to the Department of Justice, the Attorney General offered advice about the "potential implications" of the matter. But the Attorney General had not been asked for the advice.
The letter was three to four paragraphs long, one containing a sentence that involved legal advice. There was no formal legal advice compiled in the normal understanding of the term.
Given the nature of the letter, it had been suggested, Mr Bruton" said, that the Attorney General should have, also used an oral communication.
"The Attorney General takes the view, and I think it is appropriate, that the most reliable and most confirmable form of communication is a letter a written communication."
