Ahern to give tribunal scope to study decisions taken by Burke in government

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is preparing to tell the Dail on Wednesday that the terms of reference of one of the sitting tribunals will be widened to include investigation of decisions made in government by Mr Ray Burke.

The Attorney General, Mr David Byrne, has completed his investigation of a report on the issuing of MMDS television rebroadcasting licences by the former minister.

Mr Byrne is expected to consult the chairmen of both tribunals about the report, which was prepared for him by officials of the Department of Public Enterprise. He will advise the Taoiseach in time for Wednesday's Private Member's debate, during which the opposition parties will question Mr Ahern's response when he became aware of the Rennicks donation in mid-March.

The move to extend the scope of either the Flood or Moriarty tribunals would go some way towards appeasing the opposition, which continued its attack last night on Mr Burke's handling of the MMDS licences issue.

Responding to weekend criticisms from Independent Newspapers, Fine Gael focused attention on a clause in Mr Burke's February 1991 letter of comfort, which extended all assurances given to Independent plc to any franchise-holders in which it acquired future interests.

Fine Gael's public enterprise spokesman, Mr Ivan Yates, said that the clause appeared to have been inserted at the behest of the then managing director of Independent Newspapers, Mr Joe Hayes, after it had not appeared in a draft of the letter issued to him by the minister in January 1991.

"It seems there is a consistent pattern of extraordinary and continuing pressure on the minister to get him to draft letters according to the legal requirements of the representatives of Princes Holdings and Independent Newspapers", Mr Yates said. "It appears both irregular and improper that a minister should be responding so assiduously to these representations."

Meanwhile, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, has said that the Taoiseach himself will be the focus of the party's attack in the Dail this week. Speaking at the weekend, he said that Mr Ahern "must have known" last March that he should do more than notify the planning tribunal about the Rennicks donation. "This question is one that will be pursued relentlessly until a comprehensive and coherent answer is given, because it goes to the heart of Mr Ahern's conception of his role as Taoiseach."

The Taoiseach was said by a spokesman to have been angered by Mr Bruton's criticisms. Mr Ahern also hit back at Labour's claims about the circumstances in which Mr Dick Spring told him of an anonymous letter concerning the Rennicks donation. In the Dail last week the Taoiseach said that he had no recollection of being told about the letter during a meeting in his office last year, although he accepted that this could have occurred.

Last night, however, a spokesman said that Mr Ahern was now adamant that he had not been told of the letter during this meeting. He was not ruling out the possibility that Mr Spring had mentioned the matter on another occasion.