FIANNA Fail has accused the Government of engaging in "sharp practice" by setting up a meeting of the Dail's social affairs committee "hours after the Dail has been dissolved and when the committee is disbanded". The party's health spokesman, Mr Brian Cowen, said the Government was an "arrogant executive" which had shown utter contempt for a parliamentary committee. He was speaking in the final stages of the private members' debate on the State's legal strategy in the case taken by Mrs Brigid McCole in the High Court.

In a sharply critical speech just before the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Bill was passed, Mr Cowen claimed: "The political hypocrisy of this administration has been exposed in the dying hours of this administration." The Minister had said in a letter to the chairman of the committee, Mr Seamus Pattison, that he would be unable to attend yesterday afternoon's meeting to answer questions on the handling of the hepatitis affair and Mrs McCole's case because of his timetable.

Mr Cowen said the Minister suggested in his letter that he would not be able to give details of the litigation but he was prepared to attend [the committee] to explain my position directly". Fianna Fail asked the chairman of the social affairs committee to organise an immediate meeting for later last night, or first thing today. Mr Cowen was informed that the meeting would not take place until 2.30 p.m. today. "Is there anyone on the Government benches seriously suggesting that you can be so arrogant, so stupid as to think that this parliament is going to be demeaned in such a fashion by claiming that you will have a meeting of a parliamentary committee at 2.30 p.m. in the full knowledge that this Dail will have dissolved by then?" he asked.