A Fianna Fail councillor cannot hide from a high-powered committee probing allegations that he snorted cocaine, the Taoiseach said today.
Dublin City Council member Liam Kelly has denied that he was taking drugs in a photograph published in some newspapers last month which showed him hunched over white powder with a rolled-up piece of paper.
Cllr Kelly claims he was merely rolling a cigarette and has made a complaint to gardai that he believes he was the victim of a blackmail attempt to exhort money from him.
Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern has asked the party's general secretary Sean Dorgan to set up a committee within the national executive to examine the issue. Mr Ahern said today:
"The issue that concerns the party is: was he snorting cocaine or was he not? If he was, that's a serious matter and the party will deal with it.
He added: "But I am concerned. If one of our elected representatives was snorting cocaine, that is a serious matter and will be dealt with as a serious matter and there will be no fudging that or hiding from that for Cllr Kelly."
Cllr Kelly, who represents the Finglas area, was first co-opted onto Dublin City Council in spring 2004 and then elected in the local elections later that year.
The photographs are stills from a mobile phone video clip taken at a party in an apartment attended by Cllr Kelly.
The footage appears to show Cllr Kelly hunched over a white substance laid out in a line on the back of a CD case.