Political reaction: The Opposition responded to the Government's rebuttal of Ms Justice Laffoy's resignation letter by saying it contradicted the Taoiseach's claims to have accepted the judge's criticisms of the Government.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said the Government's rebuttal of the judge's letter directly contradicted Mr Ahern's remarks.
The Taoiseach said on Monday that the Government had to deal with the issues raised by the judge. "I accept Justice Laffoy's criticisms, she has worked on this."
However, he did not accept the specific allegation that the Government had rendered the inquiry "powerless".
Mr Kenny said there was a "litany of excuses" in the Government document. These did not hide the fact that the judge had resigned due to Government actions.
"There is no admission of guilt. There is no acceptance of responsibility and there is precious little contrition for the impact of the Government's actions on the victims of abuse," Mr Kenny said.
"The Government states in the document that its interest lies in individual victims' rights but, as far back as December 2002, the Government was examining ways to treat the victims of abuse as statistics rather than individuals."
Labour leader Mr Pat Rabbitte also raised Mr Ahern's remarks and said the Government was "speaking out of both sides of its mouth".
"Yesterday the Taoiseach said he accepted the criticisms levelled at his Government by Ms Justice Laffoy. Today the Minister for Education said that the Government does not share her perceptions that the workings of her commission had been undermined by Government action and inaction."
Accusing the Government of putting its own gloss and spin on the affair, Mr Rabbitte said the records published yesterday had been suppressed in order to facilitate the Government's defence.
"Their statement challenging the condemnation of Judge Laffoy does not disguise the catalogue of obstruction on the part of the Government, which precipitated the judge's resignation.
"The Minister's claim that useful work can continue to be done by the investigative committee is an empty platitude for the reasons succinctly spelt out by the committee itself in its statement last week. Investigations cannot continue when there is no certainty as to the statutory mandate of the commission," he said.
Green Party leader Mr Trevor Sargent said "the Government's incompetence in the Laffoy debacle" meant it should immediately recall the Dáil to mandate a streamlined redress process.
