The Dail is to ask the Flood tribunal if the EU Commissioner is free to respond to the allegation that he received £50,000 meant for Fianna Fail in 1989.

Fine Gael accepted a Government amendment to its private member's motion requesting the Clerk of the Dail to ask the tribunal if Mr Padraig Flynn was constrained by it from making a public statement in response to the resolution passed by the House last month.

Mr Flynn's daughter, Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn, a Fianna Fail TD for Mayo, rose at the end of the debate to tell the Leas Ceann Comhairle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, that she was challenging the Government's amendment, which had received all-party support.

When Dr O'Hanlon asked if the motion was passed, deputies on both Government and opposition benches said "Ta." Ms Cooper-Flynn said "Nil" and left the chamber.

Last month Ms Cooper-Flynn lost the Fianna Fail whip after voting against the Government's motion calling on Mr Flynn to respond to the allegation.

The Government amendment requests Mr Justice Flood to state whether tribunal representatives asked Mr Flynn or his legal adviser not to discuss with, or divulge to, any person the matters discussed with the tribunal.

It also asks Mr Justice Flood if Mr Flynn is now free to make a full statement as requested by the Dail.

The Fine Gael chief whip, Mr Sean Barrett, said: "It is clear that all sides in Dail Eireann are now agreed that the sole member of the planning tribunal be asked to state whether the advice on confidentiality Commissioner Flynn claims was given to him by the tribunal precludes him from making a full statement on the matter of a £50,000 donation, as requested by the Dail in February."

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said it was absolutely vital that the greatest caution be exercised in dealing with a tribunal of inquiry.

"The Dail must leave the tribunal to get on with its work in establishing the truth. As we have stated before, the time to debate the matters under discussion in the tribunal is when it has reported."

However, Mr Dempsey added, the Government recognised the special public circumstances surrounding Mr Flynn's position. "We also recognise that those circumstances mean there should be no misunderstanding of the constraints placed on him."

It was against the background of this balanced consideration of all the relevant factors that the Government considered the Fine Gael motion, he added.

"The Government's position is that it can accept the thrust of the motion to the extent that it seeks to obtain clarification from the tribunal; however, we cannot accept the terms in which the motion is expressed."

The Fine Gael spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Gay Mitchell, said it was not good enough that the House wait until Mr Flynn was again a private citizen before it received public explanations from him regarding public allegations.

"When it was discovered that former minister Ray Burke did have a case to answer relating to monies allegedly received by him while also holding office as a minister, he not only resigned from government but he left public life," he said.

"With similar allegations hanging over him, not only has Mr Flynn not replied to the allegations but he expects to continue in public life, to clock up a third pension to add to his Dail and ministerial pensions, presumably in the hope that his term of office will have to come to an end before the tribunal either examines him or reports its findings on his evidence."

Mr Mitchell said that the Government had pulled its punches for too long on the issue.

"I realise there are members of this House who find this whole business painful and unedifying. But the circumstances of this particular case are such that we are entitled to an explanation and that we must seek that explanation."

The Labour spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said that since the allegation first came into the public domain, Mr Flynn's attitude had been inconsistent, choosing on some occasions to comment publicly to the media, as in the infamous Late Late Show interview, and opting on other occasions to shelter behind a claim of legal impediment due to the Flood tribunal. He challenged Fianna Fail to say very clearly when it first became aware of Mr Gilmartin's donation, and why, apparently, it took no action for 10 years to establish what happened to the money.

"Indeed, the failure of Fianna Fail to pursue this matter is one of the most puzzling aspects of this bizarre affair."

Mr Gilmore said that £50,000 was, by any standards, a massive donation in 1989. "This sum would have been enough to fund a general election campaign in several constituencies, yet Fianna Fail apparently took no action to recover the money or establish what happened to it."

The Fine Gael chief whip, Mr Sean Barrett, referred to a donation given by the Fitzwilton group through Rennicks. "It was stated that a former minister and a former member received a sum of £30,000. It was clear that the donation was meant for the Fianna Fail party.

"Fitzwilton group is entitled to donate money to the Fianna Fail party or any other party. That is within the law. So far as the Fitzwilton group is concerned, the planning tribunal will not investigate that matter because it does not relate to any planning issue . . .

"In fairness to the Fitzwilton group, how can that matter ever be cleared up? It will not come out in any tribunal."