There were sharp Dáil exchanges between the Government and Opposition over newspaper opinion polls on the popularity of the political parties and their leaders.

The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, who was taking the Order of Business in the absence of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, was pressed by opposition party leaders to concede that the Government had misled voters in the May general election. He was further challenged to make a statement on the current state of the national finances.

Mr Walsh, flanked by Cabinet colleagues, including the PD Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said that he had read the polls in The Irish Times and the Star, adding that they contained interesting reading.

"The leaders of all political parties would do well to study the figures. Three out of four people, for example, have not yet heard of the new leader of Fine Gael. That is a considerable problem."

Mr Denis Naughten (FG, Longford-Roscommon) interjected: "They know all about the Minister. The farmers have put up with five years of misery." The leader of the Green Party, Mr Trevor Sargent, asked Mr Walsh if, as a betting man, he had "placed any bets on who will lose his job first, Mick McCarthy or Bertie Ahern."

Earlier, the Fine Gael deputy leader, Mr Richard Bruton, who was deputising for Mr Enda Kenny, asked Mr Walsh if he was prepared to apologise on behalf of the Government to the people about the manner in which they were misled before the last general election in order to secure office.

"I am sure he read in the newspapers today that a poll confirms that three out of four people believe the Government misled the public in order to secure office. Does he accept that the weak and vulnerable will pay for the Government's binge as a result of cutbacks in health services, education, housing, extra charges and additional inflation ?" Mr Sargent saidmany people would reflect on that question as they went to the polls in the Nice Treaty referendum. "It is important for the Minister to be forthright and honest to ensure the result of the poll is no decided by the anger felt among people towards the Government but on the basis of the Nice Treaty itself."

The Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, said he supported Mr Bruton and Mr Sargent. "The figures in today's edition of the Star speak for themselves. Given the Minister's experience in government, does he recall any time that the public was so deliberately misled by the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach ?"

He asked if the estimates had been completed and if they would confirm that a further reduction of €1.7 billion would manifest itself when they were published. The estimates, he added, "will give substance to the scale of deception and lies presented to the people during the campaign" .

Mr Walsh said various economists were invited to study the election programmes, which they did. "Monitoring of the national finances and the international financial situation was kept under review throughout that period. As matters developed, the Department of Finance, the Minister for Finance and the Government took action and they will continue to take action."

Mr Bruton remarked: "After the election was over ..." Mr Walsh said there was a deterioration in the world economy and the national economy. "We are determined to take a prudent attitude to the national finances. We will not, under any circumstances, allow what happened to the national finances in the 1980s to be repeated."