PDs did not seek departure of Burke - Harney

The Progressive Democrats did not seek the resignation of Deputy Ray Burke from Government, the Tanaiste Ms Harney told the Dail. "I'm not interested in personalities and I am not interested in looking for resignations," she said in the debate on Ministerial appointments. "I do trust the Taoiseach," she added. "I shouldn't have to keep saying this but if I didn't trust him I wouldn't serve in a government with him."

Ms Harney also said that the former Minister for Justice, Mrs Nora Owen, could have revoked the Mahfouz passports but she chose not to do so. "In January 1995 she could have revoked those passports, because the investment hadn't been made and a residency hadn't been established."

She did not believe "that we should continue any longer to sell that passport to a select few wealthy individuals" . She acknowledged however, that "many companies have been saved by the investments," and 147 persons had been granted passports.

In an apparent reference to The Irish Times report last Saturday about the Mahfouz passports, the Tanaiste said: "We must ensure that stories which appear one year as a news story don't get regurgitated a couple of years later as a new sensational piece of news. That's not good journalism, that's not fair, that doesn't serve democracy and that does nothing for the honourable profession of journalism."

Complimenting the former minister for his part in delivering a ceasefire she said it was not possible for Mr Burke to focus totally on the talks process "given the enormous pressure" on him. She said that she respected the Opposition's right to hold the Government to account, but a number of debates had gone beyond the policy issues and had become "an unprecedented effort to debate the politics of personality".

She defended rezoning and said that "we do need to rezone land and the vast majority of rezoning decisions were made in the interests of the people of county Dublin. They were not made because people wanted money.

"Some bad decisions have made rezoning a very difficult issue for all local politicians and therefore I think the new planning tribunal will restore the good name of the vast majority of local politicians. I firmly believe that very little will come out of the planning tribunal but even if that is the case I think that in itself will have been a good day's work."