Taoiseach 'absolutely blameless' in Flood row

The Taoiseach told the Dáil he was "absolutely blameless" in the controversy surrounding the retirement of the chairman of the Flood tribunal.

During a tetchy question-and-answer session with Opposition leaders, Mr Ahern denied he had misled the Dáil. He resented any such allegation.

"In fact I have been totally upfront," he insisted, as the Fine Gael and Labour leaders demanded to know why he failed to disclose to the Dáil that he knew a month ago that Mr Justice Flood had told the Government he was unable to continue as chairman. Mr Ahern said that the tribunal had asked the Attorney General not to circulate the letter.

Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny said the Taoiseach's comments gave the impression that he misled the House, while the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, accused the Taoiseach of only "drip-feeding" information "as it is extracted" from him and said there was no "disbarment" on the Taoiseach releasing the information to the Dáil last week.

A letter from Mr Justice Flood on June 16th made it clear he wanted the Oireachtas to know of his intention. But Mr Ahern, insisting that he followed "the rule of strictly abiding and dealing with the tribunal".

Last week he "almost went out and did a press conference in Cork" when he was informed that Mr Justice Flood had changed his mind, "that he was going to deal with the costs as requested by the Minister for the Environment and was going to stay on for another two years".

"I was within 10 minutes of doing a press conference when I got a call from the Attorney General to say that position had changed," he added.

Mr Justice Flood had met the Attorney General on Thursday last week and said he would continue and would deal with costs. "He left to return to the tribunal to write a letter stating that was his intention. Circumstances changed and he telephoned back to say he wanted to think about it overnight and subsequently changed his position."

The Taoiseach said he could "only keep up with events. I do not make them and I can only report to this House on the basis of what happened. I am absolutely blameless in all of this." When Mr Rabbitte asked "is there anything else the Taoiseach wants to tell the House about this entire affair and that we do not have to extract from him on a drip-feed basis?", Mr Ahern retorted: "I did not drip-feed information."

Mr Rabbitte said however that the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, had told Labour's environment spokesman Mr Eamon Gilmore that no changes were planned in the Flood tribunal and that was long after discussions were initiated and after the original letter.

Mr Ahern said however that in past few weeks "there have been issues within the tribunal and I followed this strictly". Further letters were required.

Mr Kenny, who raised the issue during Opposition leaders' questions, said that the Taoiseach's explanation to the Dáil on Tuesday had "added greater confusion" to the issue and gave the impression that he had only just heard of the chairman's decision. Mr Kenny suggested it constituted a "misleading of the House and the withholding of relevant information about the most historic tribunal of recent times".