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The release of the tape threw Lenihan's campaign into meltdown.

Lenihan tried in a subsequent live television interview on the Six-One News to insist that what he had said to Duffy was wrong, insisting that " on mature recollection " his October 1990 version was the correct one, and all that he had said previously over eight years was incorrect.

However his popularity plummeted by 18 % overnight.

The opposition Fine Gael party put down a Motion of No Confidence in the government.

The Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, denied that Lenihan was under any pressure to resign.

However when the minority party in government, the Progressive Democrats, threatened to quit government unless Lenihan resigned or was sacked, and Lenihan refused to resign, the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, instructed President Hillery to sack him.

Lenihan went on to become the first candidate from his party ever to lose an Irish presidential election, with the Irish Labour Party candidate, Mary Robinson, eventually winning the office.