The Minister for Justice will today face a motion of no confidence in the Dáil.

The Fianna Fáil motion will claim that the recent scandal surrounding the Garda Tapes has left Alan Shatter unfit for office.

The opposition is expected to use the debate to pose further questions about the government's handling of the Garda Tapes affair.

The motion being debated today and tomorrow, and voted upon tomorrow night, is almost certain to be defeated, given how the cabinet has rallied around Minister Shatter in the last few days.

But the three hours of Dáil debates will give the opposition a chance to launch another barrage of attacks on the under-fire minister.

They'll use that change to exploit some of the gaps in the government's explanation about how the Garda Tapes have come to light.

They will question why Enda Kenny chose to employ a senior counsel to investigate the tapes before bringing the question to Minister Shatter:

They'll ask how the Department of Justice failed to pass on a letter from Martin Callinan to the Shatter for two weeks - and why he only got to read it after last week's cabinet meeting.

And they'll ask whether others are deliberately keeping the Minister out of the loop - by not telling him about the Garda taping issue for 4 months after the true extent was revealed.