There were words of congratulations from the opposition benches although it didn't take long for normal political jousting to resume. Labour's Brendan Howlin reminded the justice minister that the Inspector of Prisons had recently described him as "outrageous and practically unbelievable". But Michael McDowell did not seem like a man looking for a row. He was all smiles.

As the justice questions came to a conclusion, Bertie Ahern arrived into the Dail chamber. "How are you?", the Tanaiste asked Ahern as the Taoiseach sat down. Relations between the two men, strained almost to breaking point a few days earlier, appeared to be back on an even keel. In the folder in his hand, Ahern had the speech offering an explanation as to how he came to receive stg£8,000 from businessmen in Manchester in late 1994. McDowell had already seen the script. The PD leader was apparently happy with the content.

Over the next two hours and 20 minutes, the Taoiseach provided the Dail with more information on the now infamous Manchester function. He repeated that he travelled to Manchester in 1994 with "personal friends", although Tony Kett and Dave McKenna were the only individuals named. The function in the Four Seasons Hotel had been organised by the late Tim Kilroe. Ahern spoke at the function.

Sterling cash "At the end of the dinner, unsolicited by me, I was presented with cash of the order of stg£8,000, made up by individual contributions from an attendance of approximately 25 people, " Ahern said. Kilroe handed over the "sterling cash". Back in Dublin, the money was converted into Irish punts and lodged into Ahern's bank account on 11 October 1994.

Ahern received the sterling money along with two other payments totalling £39,000 in 1993 and 1994. He was Minister for Finance at the time. In the Dail last Tuesday, he continued to argue that he had broken no law. He confirmed that he had no tax obligations. Taking the money was, the Taoiseach said, "an error". It was a "misjudgment". He added, "I now regret the choices I made in those difficult and dark times." But there was no apology for taking the money. The sorry . . . when it came at the end of the speech . . . was for the fuss caused.

"The bewilderment caused to the public about recent revelations has been deeply upsetting for me and others near and dear to me. To them, to the Irish people and to this House, I offer my apologies."

McDowell joined in applauding the Taoiseach at the end of the speech. The PD leader was clearly happy with what he had heard. His predecessor Mary Harney and his new deputy leader Liz O'Donnell looked on in silence. Neither clapped.

Questions flowed from the opposition benches although many contributions were little more than speeches which dented the information gathering process. Enda Kenny was the first to speak. "When the Taoiseach put his hand on that money in his then capacity as Minister for Finance, private or public, he did wrong, " the Fine Gael leader said. Little new was elicited from Ahern, although many questions remained unanswered.

The Taoiseach was asked about the source of the IR£50,000 he had saved between the late 1980s and November 1993. "My savings were totally out of my own income, from my TD's salary and my salary as Minister for Finance, " he revealed. There was less clarity on where this money was kept. "I did not save it in a shoebox, " Ahern admitted. But he also said, "I operated for a fairly long period without a bank account and did keep that money in my own possession during that period." Nobody asked what Ahern meant by "in my own possession".

The opposition had little success in clarifying what were Ahern's banking arrangements. "I had several bank accounts in joint names with my wife but I was not using those bank accounts at the time of my separation until that was over. I had one account in my own name which was a dormant account, " Ahern told the Dail last Tuesday. In his RTE interview the previous week, Ahern said he had "no bank account in my own name in that period" [from 1987 to late 1993]. Significantly he also said he "paid Miriam maintenance" while saving money. The impression was left of the finance minister being paid by cheque every fortnight and handling significant amounts of cash. "One can cash a cheque and use the cash. It is very simple, " Noel Dempsey told the Dail last week.

Taxes paid In the question and answer session on Tuesday, Ahern also confirmed he had not availed of the tax amnesties. But as previously, he said he had "paid capital gains tax and gift tax" unrelated to either the two Dublin payments or the stg£8,000. He was not asked about the nature of those gifts.

Questions were also posed about the 'loans' received from 12 people in 1993 and 1994. It had been reported that the money from Padraic O'Connor, the then managing director of NCB, was drawn on an account held by the stockbroking company. Ahern denied this. Interestingly, whereas in his RTE interview Ahern had indicated that Gerry Brennan and Des Richardson organised the December 1993 contribution, last Tuesday in the Dail he said, "As far as I was aware, Padraic O'Connor personally gave me this [bank draft]".

Little new emerged about the 1994 Manchester payment. Ahern said that, from the previous Friday, he had been receiving phonecalls from people in Manchester. "By Monday morning, about 35 people had said they were at the function.

Clearly, some were talking about charity and other functions, so I cannot pin them down exactly, " he added.

When he had identified any names, he would pass the information on to the Mahon tribunal, he said. In his RTE interview a week previously, Ahern had said the Manchester payment was "totally separate and nothing to do with this" [his marital separation].

But in his Dail speech, he said it was received "in the context of personal and family circumstance". Nobody took Ahern up on this discrepancy.

When Ahern left the Dail chamber last Tuesday evening, the payments controversy seemed to be over. There were questions unanswered but the opposition had failed to land even a mild blow on the Fianna Fail leader.

McDowell was satisfied. Ahern was secured.

The government's future was safe.

But then at teatime on Wednesday, it emerged that Ahern had purchased his Drumcondra house from Michael Wall, one of those who attended the Manchester function. The news added a new twist to the already baffling affair. "Was there a specific reason the Taoiseach did not put this name into the public domain when he replied to questions earlier this week?" Enda Kenny asked in the Dail on Thursday morning.

The Tanaiste was looking for an answer to the same question. By all accounts, he reacted badly when he learnt about the Wall connection. Sources say he had concluded his final meeting with Ahern prior to the Dail debate on Tuesday with his own question, "Is there anything else I should know about?"

Ahern was supposed to have cleared the air with his Dail speech. Now, as McDowell saw it, it was clear that information had been withheld.

There had been a breach of trust.

The PD parliamentary party met to consider the latest development. McDowell and his colleagues were angry that Ahern had not come clean with all the available information. They had given him their backing on Tuesday only to be exposed to another revelation 24 hours later. McDowell refused to take the order of business on Thursday morning. He had taken the opposition heat over the Manchester payment a week previously. It was made clear to Fianna Fail that Ahern would have to change his own plans for Thursday morning and explain himself in the Dail chamber. Harsh words are said to have been exchanged.

"I offer my apologies to the House that I am back for the fourth day out of five to answer these issues, " Ahern said on Thursday morning, without any acceptance that the continuing controversy was actually being driven by his own evasiveness and ongoing economy with the facts. Ahern told the Dail he had rented the house at Beresford Avenue in Drumcondra from Michael Wall of Cong and Manchester from 1995 until late in 1997, at which time he purchased the property. He paid "full market rent" as a tenant and "full market price" as a purchaser. The man, who a few years previously had no backing facilities, now had a number of accounts. He got a mortgage from the Irish Permanent Building Society. He paid stamp duty from his current account. He paid the deposit from his "building society deposit book".

Ahern had not told either the Tanaiste or the Dail about Wall's connection to his house because he did not believe it was relevant. He confirmed that he had spoken to Wall three times last weekend.

Michael Wall "He [Wall] did not attend the dinner that day but he was in the hotel in a working capacity, using his coach minibus, " Ahern said. The two talked in the hotel bar after the dinner. The Taoiseach also confirmed that, although Wall was not at the dinner, he did know that Ahern had received money from the people who attended the function. It was not made clear who told Wall about the cash collection.

Ahern's explanation seemed plausible. His performance was his best since the controversy had emerged exactly two weeks previously. As with everything else in this entire affair, there were outstanding issues but it seemed that Ahern had done enough to ease the political pressure. Brian Cowen said the public was becoming "tired" of the controversy. Michael McDowell clearly felt otherwise. The PD leader was still vexed.

'Coalition survival in doubt as McDowell stays quiet, ' read one newspaper headline on Friday morning after an extraordinary 24 hours in which the PDs refused to answer any questions about the controversy. An impression was deliberately allowed to build that the party was considering pulling out of government. But if McDowell had a strategy, it was unclear what it was.

His coalition partners were also in the dark.

"It's quite remarkable. It's hard to figure about just what is going on, " one senior Fianna Fail official said.

Annoyance was increasing in Fianna Fail circles. Government chief whip Tom Kitt intervened to remind the PDs that, should they opt for the opposition benches, Fianna Fail had other options with like-minded independents.

Mary O'Rourke spoke of those in politics needing "a thick skin".

Mary Harney emerged with conciliatory words. "In the past where difficulties have arisen, we've always been able to use the good relationships we have at every level to resolve those difficulties and I hope we can do that on this occasion as well, " she said. Her intervention was a stark reminder that a new dynamic has entered the relationship between the two coalition partners.

Rumours of various new revelations were working their way around Leinster House.

But in the absence of hard facts, it seemed that the controversy was being kept alive by the PDs because their new leader had taken offence at not being told about the link between Michael Wall and Ahern's house purchase. It appeared that an apology from Ahern was required.

McDowell broke his silence at lunchtime on Friday. He said the government was "safe if the damage done in recent times is repaired".

However, he did not say how this repair work was to be done. Contacts continued. The two men spoke at a social function on Friday evening at Gonzaga College in Dublin. They held a private meeting yesterday.

A week previously, as controversy raged over the Manchester payment, McDowell had upped the ante only to back down in the end.

Now he was back on the top of the mountain of moral outage on the verge of a second climbdown. The payments controversy was not of his making. However, in the absence of any significant new information, his decision-making may well damage his reputation and that of his party, as well as poisoning relations between the two parties in the coalition government.