The Taoiseach rejected Opposition criticism of the failure to have facilities provided in the new office accommodation for TDs in Leinster House.

Mr Ahern said the workers involved had worked through the night, over two weekends. They had worked 16-hour days to finish the project. "It is a £25 million project, to be completed in three months. It will give offices, for the first time ever, to every member of this House. It will give four new state-of-the-art committee rooms, party assembly rooms, linked with the old Leinster House. "The building was available and ready for occupation, but, unfortunately, every last detail is not finished. The staff is doing its utmost to complete the work."

The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said it needed to be recognised that the Government was not able to manage the project properly, and get it finished quickly.

The matter was first raised by the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, who said that the age when deputies wrote letters by hand, and operated without secretaries and telephones, went back to the 1920s and 1930s. "It is impossible for an Opposition to do its job, where there is no typewriter operating, no Internet access, most of the telephones are down, people cannot ring outside the House for information. It is not right that Ministers got it wrong on the radio today and yesterday, saying that everything was ready, when it wasn't.

"I cannot understand how Deputy Martin Cullen (Minister of State for the Board of Works) is still in office, after accepting responsibility for this project and not delivering."

Mr Emmet Stagg (Labour, Kildare North) said that last Thursday his party had sought assurances that the offices would be ready in time for the Dail resumption. "Minister Cullen keeps saying today that the building is completed and ready and working. Could we ask him to withdraw that here in this House now?"