Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has accused the Minister for Justice of "bullyboy posturing" in seeking to blame the Rainbow government for the McBrearty affair.
He said that according to the evidence of Michael McDowell's own secretary general to the Morris tribunal, "it was not until the end of April 1999" that, "for the first time a detailed submission on the Donegal issue was made to senior management and the minister".
"In other words, no minister or senior official was briefed on the serious nature of these issues until almost two years after the Rainbow had left office and well into the watch of the Fianna Fáil/ PD Government, with Michael McDowell as its attorney general."
Pushing again to lay some of the blame for events in Donegal at the door of the Rainbow government, Mr McDowell said in Cork of Frank McBrearty snr and jnr: "They are due an apology from the Irish State for what happened to them.
"This apology must be made on behalf of the ministers for justice who were there at the time the morale of the Garda Síochána imploded and the government who was there at the time this was done to them.
"There is an air of unreality about this. A group of politicians are now hampering my efforts to reform the Garda Síochána in respect of events that took place when their feet were under the Cabinet table," he declared.
Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins, who together with Labour's Brendan Howlin brought the issue to national attention, also said yesterday that knowledge of the issues surrounding the McBrearty case only came to light in the course of the first of the current Fianna Fáil/PD Governments.
Mr McDowell said the decision of two senior Garda officers heavily criticised by the Morris tribunal to quit was partly motivated by their desire to protect the reputation of the force.
Welcoming the decision of Supt Joe Shelley and Det Supt John McGinley to retire, he said they would leave in July.
"I believe that by doing so they have saved us the process of a disciplinary inquiry and I acknowledge that action on their behalf and I believe that in taking that action they have been motivated not simply by self-interest but also by their perception of what the interests of GS actually are."
Defending once more Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, Mr McDowell said he had "acted at all times in the interests of the force as he saw it and he is now co-operating with me in the reform of the force.
"What we need now is leadership in the process of change, not just head after head for the purpose of making points. I want to lead a coherent reformation of the Garda Síochána, a transformation of it to make it a police force for the 21st century.
"Simply removing the top management of the Garda Síochána at this stage, if I was inclined to do so which I am not, would not achieve that end. What we need now is unite on the process of transformation and change and put in place the very demanding agenda that is now laid out in front of us," Mr McDowell said.
Commissioner Conroy will now take "effective and firm disciplinary action in the Donegal division in respect of all of the figures where he considers that that is warranted".
He had become convinced over "the last number of months" that the McBreartys and Mr Mark McConnell had been the victims of a "frame up" as the evidence to the tribunal "tumbled out".
Though he said he would offer them "a ringing apology" when their cases for compensation came before the High Court, he said he did not want to be accused of silencing them with an early compensation offer.
"I don't want to be accused then of wanting to hush it up and offer them money so that the facts don't emerge. They are entitled to litigate if they want and to have their day in court.
"I hope they will. I am not going to stop them having their day in court. I don't want it said that I won't make them an offer either, but if I do make them an offer in settlement of their claim I don't want it claimed that I am trying to buy their silence.