The Taoiseach Mr Ahern admitted this afternoon that a controversy surrounding the employment of a PR executive to the Department of the Environment "is not going to go away" and said he would back an investigation into the circumstances of her appointment.
Ms Monica Leech was hired by the Minister for Transport, Mr Martin Cullen, formerly environment minister, to act as a communications consultant even though Drury Communications was already acting for the Department.
The contract was worth as much as €1,200 a day.
"The issue is not going to go away," Mr Ahern conceded in the Dáil this evening.
"I think it is already agreed that the Public Accounts Committee is going to look at this. If they do not look at the papers I have no problem with someone else looking at it."
Ms Leech was retained on a six month short term communications contract in July 2002 following a single tender process.
Mr Ahern told the Dáil a single tender approach was chosen because of the pressing communication demands on the department at the time, although he acknowledged that had it been opened up from the outset the situation "wouldn't look the way it does".
Five months later three firms were invited to tender for the longer term contract.
The Taoiseach admitted that the initial selection process was based on a fee of €800 a day, for 12 days a month.
"Perhaps it would be better quite frankly if I just agree ... that the papers are looked at. I would not have an objection to that."
The Labour Party leader Mr Pat Rabbitte questioned how, while Ms Leech was appointed because the minister needed someone in a hurry, when the contract was put to tender another company which apparently tendered at half the price was unsuccessful.
"It is an unusual way to recruit a close political confidant in order to pay them 3,600 for a three day week," he said.
It also emerged today that Ms Leech is not a member of the professional body representing such specialists.
Ms Monica Leech is not a member of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland and her firm is not a member of the trade body the Public Relations Consultants' Association, the bodies confirmed to ireland.com.
However, Mr Gerry Davis, who is chief executive of both bodies, said only around 70 per cent of public relations practitioners in Ireland are members of the PRII.
Ms Leech has been paid more than €300,000 by the Department of the Environment. She was put in charge of communications strategy at the department in July 2003, when Mr Cullen was the minister there.
This year, up to October, she earned €120,968 from the department. In 2003, she was paid €135,036, while she earned €47,197 between June and December 2002.
The current Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, has told the Dáil Ms Leech carried out "good work" for the department.
When the controversy broke a number of weeks ago, Mr Cullen said he had needed a communications specialist to deal with some "very big issues".
He said his invitation to Ms Leech to take on the contract was "quite legitimate to overcome the immediacy that was needed".
State bodies must get five companies to tender for contracts worth more than €50,000, although sometimes up to 12 can be contacted.
For contracts worth less than €50,000 a year, Government departments and State bodies must ask three companies to put in tenders. They can recruit without a tender - as Ms Leech was for the first six months of her contract in 2002 - in cases of "extreme urgency".
Mr Cullen declined to talk to the media when asked to answer questions about the latest reports on Ms Leech this afternoon.
He was attending an Iarnród Éireann function in Dublin.
However, his spokesman said: "We have said all we have to say on this matter. There's nothing more to say about it."
Additional reporting: PA