Sources say the party leadership was left "smarting" and "extremely annoyed" that journalists had access to copies of the report before Enda Kenny.

Fine Gael and other parties were receiving calls from the media asking for comment on the findings before the report had even been received by the clerk of the Dáil and was placed in the Dáil library, they said.

There was also irritation that the Moriarty tribunal, which was established by the houses of the Oireachtas, chose to publish the report on a week that the Dáil was not sitting.

All the main political parties are extremely reluctant to say anything that might be considered remotely critical of any of the tribunals, and Fine Gael declined to make any comment when contacted last week. However, it is understood Fine Gael initially considered expressing its unhappiness about the situation in a letter to the tribunal, but decided against this. Instead the party's chief whip, Paul Kehoe, will raise Fine Gael's concerns on the issue at the Committee on Procedures and Privileges.

"The custom with all reports going back to the beef tribunal is that it goes to the clerk of the Dáil and the leader of the opposition would have access to it before it is published. But, this time, the media had it even before the clerk had it. It drove Fine Gael mad, " one source said.

It is understood that Fine Gael's concerns are shared by other political parties. It was also noted that just 40 copies of the report were initially sent to the Oireachtas library - enough for only a fifth of Oireachtas members.

The decision to publish the report on the Haughey module in the days before Christmas also raised eyebrows in political circles.

"They have been at this for the best part of 10 years and then they publish it in a week that the Dáil is not sitting?" one source said.