An attempt to have Attorney General Maire Whelan attend the Seanad to answer questions on the circumstances surrounding the resignation of former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan failed on Wednesday.

The Government won the vote, called by Fianna Fáil, by 26 to 18 electronically and again by 27 votes to 20 in a walk through the lobbies.

Fianna Fáil Seanad leader Darragh O’Brien said that based on opinion polls the general public did not believe the Taoiseach’s version or his account of what happened.

“However, one person with a unique insight into what happened and the decisions made by the Cabinet”, was the Attorney General, the legal adviser to the Cabinet.

“She will have a unique and important perspective of what really happened around that time. It is important, therefore, that she answer questions about some of the contradictory evidence given and the fact that her evidence had to be changed four times during the course of the commission of investigation.”

He called for Ms Whelan to be invited to attend the House to answer questions and standing order 56 which states that the Attorney General “may attend and be heard in the Seanad”.

Mr O’Brien said it would give Ms Whelan an opportunity” to get her point of view across”.

Independent Senator Marie Louise O’Donnell sharply criticised Fianna Fáil for its proposal, adding that the Attorney General could not be compelled to attend

She said the Attorney General “is not here to answer the Senator’s partisan and political needs and make him feel relevant, nor is it to answer his need to seek attention now that he is on his way to an election”.

She said “Fianna Fáil’s motion is basically ‘Look at me, I am dancing.’ I suggest the Senator finds his own mirror and dances in front of that.”