Opposition parties have intensified their criticisms of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, in advance of his Dáil statement tomorrow afternoon about the leaking of a confidential document last year.
However a succession of senior Fine Gael Ministers have strongly backed Leo Varadkar's position that much of the information contained in the document was in the public realm when he shared the document, and his motivation was solely to get GPs to sign up to a new contract.
Tonight, the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald demanded the immediate release by the Taoiseach Micheál Martin of all communications between the Government and the National Association of General Practitioners - the organisation whose then President Maitiú Ó Tuathail received the confidential document.
Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin claimed on RTÉ's Six One News that Mr Varadkar had "abused his position as Taoiseach" when he leaked the information to the NAGP.
His party colleague, deputy Louise O'Reilly, argued that Mr Varadkar's sharing of the document was "not in the public interest, but that of the NAGP".
However, speaking this morning at Government Buildings, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he did not believe that "any law was broken" by Mr Varadkar and he still had his confidence.
Mr Martin added that while Leo Varadkar's passing of the document to the NAGP last year was "not best practice", the agreement should have been public knowledge much earlier.
In an echo of the argument put forward by Mr Varadkar himself, the Taoiseach said the objective was to get a new GP agreement over the line and "in terms of the policy side overall it was a good news story," Mr Martin said, adding that there were commitments to update the NAGP in terms of the progress in talks.
He also stated bluntly that no advantage had accrued to the recipients of the document.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said Mr Varadkar regrets the way he shared the document.
Speaking on Claire Byrne Live tonight, the Minister it was essentially a long process where the Irish Medical Organisation had already issued a press release along with the Government and HSE.
Mr Coveney said this was a deal that had concluded, negotiations were over and when Mr Varadkar sent the document to the NAGP it was on a confidential basis to brief them.
He said the Tánaiste regrets the way it happened but said that it is not the same as leaking a document to gain political advantage.
However that contention was hotly disputed by the Labour Party, with its Dublin Bay North TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin claiming that the leaking of the document was "clearly an advantage" to an organisation which he characterised as "in free-fall".
He said the sharing of the document by the Tánaiste smacked of affording support to "a political ally" - that is the former President of the NAGP Dr Ó Tuathail.
Mr Varadkar's other coalition partner, the Greens, have demanded he make a full and frank statement.
Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin said Mr Varadkar's statement to the Dáil is of crucial importance and he needs to answer any questions that are put to him.
She said she did not think it would be "right or constructive" to be prescriptive about the questions he needs to answer, adding that her party believes the sharing of the contract was not appropriate.
The Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Peter Burke, said he does not think that trust in the Tánaiste has been damaged as a result of the weekend's events.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Minister Burke said he fully believes Mr Varadkar believed he was doing the right thing in terms of his motivation and was trying his very best to ensure all GPs would sign up for this deal.
Opposition politicians strenuously disagreed with that position.
Rise TD Paul Murphy said he has written to the Standards in Public Office requesting that it investigates Mr Varadkar's leaking of the document with the NAGP.
My letter to SIPO calling for an investigation into Leo Varadkar's breaches of the Codes of Conduct.#LeoTheLeak pic.twitter.com/TPwDVaN5Sn
— Paul Murphy (@paulmurphy_TD) November 2, 2020
He said on Twitter: "I believe that Leo Varadkar is clearly in breach of both the Codes of Conduct for TDs and the Code of Conduct for Office Holders."
The Rural Independent Group's Mattie McGrath said his group will be asking "...the Oireachtas Committee on Procedure to investigate this matter and if appropriate for the Clerk of the Dáil to initiate an immediate investigation".
Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín said in a statement: "What the former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar has done, was in bad faith, deceitful and duplicitous.
"If this is the culture from the top, why should any other level of government or the civil service be any different. If Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan allow this action go uncensored, why should we expect any better from any member of the administration in future?"
Leo Varadkar has denied that he acted unlawfully by leaking the agreement reached with the Irish Medical Organisation to the NAGP.
He has admitted that providing an agreement reached with the IMO, through what he termed an informal communication channel, to a rival group was not best practice.
In a statement at the weekend, Mr Varadkar said that on Friday, 5 April 2019, the agreement was publicly announced by the IMO.
Mr Varadkar said the fact that an agreement had been reached, and the nature of that agreement, was not something that was confidential or sensitive after 6 April.
The Social Democrats Róisín Shortall said his statement does not go far enough and he needs to provide far more information when he speaks in the Dáil tomorrow.
The former health minister Simon Harris has said he did not know that Mr Varadkar was going to share the document with the NAGP and rang him over the weekend to acknowledge that.
However Mr Harris said he accepts Mr Varadkar bona fides and what he was trying to achieve at the time, but agreed with his view that it was not the best way to do it.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, the Minister for Further and Higher Education said he is satisfied the engagement in relation to the document had been substantially completed at that time it was shared with the NAGP.
Mr Varadkar also received the backing of the Fine Gael Minister for Justice who said she accepts Mr Varadkar's statement that sending the document was "not best practice" and the manner in which it was delivered could have been handled better.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme, Helen McEntee said there seems to be a suggestion that the document was given for "some personal gain" or that there could be changes made to the document, which was not the case.
However Minister McEntee said she could not answer why a document marked 'confidential' and 'restricted circulation' was couriered to the NAGP, but said Mr Varadkar will answer all questions tomorrow in the Dáil, adding that he not been slow to say he will answer questions and make a statement.
There was also some support from the Fianna Fáil back benches.
Fianna Fáil's Barry Cowen told the same programme that it may have been inappropriate for Mr Varadkar to send a document to the NAGP and it was not best practice, but he believes Mr Varadkar acted with the best of intentions.
He said Mr Varadkar has to "cop on and move on" and learn from the mistake. The Offaly TD said there are bigger and broader issues to be dealt with such as Covid-19 and Brexit.
