The Opposition has criticised the Government's failure to make a decision on a new financial watchdog.

The report of the advisory group on the single regulatory authority - as reported in The Irish Times two weeks ago - has urged the establishment of a green-field regulator for financial services totally independent of the Central Bank.

In a statement issued with the report yesterday, the Department of Finance said the Government will "consider the report in the near future and a further announcement will be made at a later date".

The publication of the report was made to facilitate public consideration of the issues, it added.

However, Fine Gael's deputy leader, Ms Nora Owen, strongly criticised the Government over the damaging "turf war" which she said has broken out between the Tanaiste and the Minister for Finance over who should control the new authority.

She added that the public was entitled to a "tough new body with teeth". "The McDowell Report has delivered the goods on the how and the why several weeks ago. Meanwhile, it emerged that the Cabinet are wasting valuable time squabbling over the who, when the only serious outstanding question is when?"

That view was echoed by the Labour Party spokesman, Mr Derek McDowell, who accused the Tanaiste, the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach of "singing off three separate hymn sheets".

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Finance said the fact that the group, chaired by Mr Michael McDowell, which examined the issue of a single financial regulator, could not reach a unanimous agreement, underlined the complexity of the issues. She added that the issue is not on next week's Cabinet agenda and is unlikely to be included the following week.

Mr McCreevy, in a RTE interview, paid tribute to the Central Bank governor, Mr Maurice O'Connell, and said he would not make a short-term decision on the report which might look politically popular. In contrast, Ms Harney made clear last week that she supported the removal of financial regulation powers from the Central Bank.

The report argues that a new single financial regulator should be given a broad range of powers which it could use to impose discipline on errant financial institutions.

All powers would be removed from the Central Bank apart from its monetary functions as a member of the European System of Central Banks.

The main body of the report argues that the new authority should have the power to reprimand errant institutions either privately or publicly, as well as the power to impose fines, to disqualify people and suspend or remove authorisation.

It also recommends that the new authority be given statutory responsibility for consumer issues and a statutory position of customer protection director should be established. Additionally, it proposes that that an ombudsman scheme operating independently of the authority should be set up.

The Central Bank said last night that it welcomes the publication of the report and the opportunity to debate the complex issues involved.

Its board is meeting this morning and a a statement is expected following that meeting.