The Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea, came under sustained attack for his reported remarks critical of the Government's deregulation of the taxi industry.

A Fine Gael motion in private member's time called for Mr O'Dea's dismissal, with the party's deputy leader, Mrs Nora Owen, describing him as "lily-livered and disloyal to the Government".

Ms Liz McManus (Lab, Wicklow) said the motion should be about more than an act of disloyalty against his colleagues, "with one eye, no doubt, directed towards trying to inflict some political damage on his Coalition colleagues, the Progressive Democrats."

Nobody who had followed Mr O'Dea's political career with even a casual degree of interest would have been surprised that he regarded the prospect of some marginal constituency advantage accruing to him to be of far more importance than any principle of collective government responsibility.

Mr O'Dea was defended by the Minister for Education, Dr Woods. "It is clear that from school transport to youth affairs to adult education, Mr O'Dea has been an innovative and dynamic Minister, who has given unstinting energy and commitment to the improvement of public services for the community in his sphere of activity."

Ms Olivia Mitchell (FG, Dublin South) said she doubted the people of Limerick wanted what Mr O'Dea was promising: an inadequate service at a high er price, through slave labour.

Mr O'Dea told his audience what it wanted to hear, she said. "What he forgot was that while this may have worked well in the past as a way of deceiving the public, in an era of mass communications you can no longer segment your audience, give them different messages and hope to get away with it."

It defied comprehension that the Taoiseach found it "perfectly acceptable that one Minister should deliberately and calculatingly set out to undermine a decision of another Minister, a decision which was backed by a High Court judgment."

Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) said Mr O'Dea should look at the empty Fianna Fail seats with trepidation.

The House will vote on the motion today.