The Taoiseach has said he is legally prohibited from discussing his countersigning of a £25,000 Fianna Fail cheque which ended up in an account controlled by Mr Charles Haughey's financial adviser.
As the Opposition continued to demand an explanation, Mr Ahern insisted he had done nothing wrong. He rejected calls for him to make a statement on the matter to the Dail, saying all his legal advice said he was precluded from doing so.
The controversy follows the revelation that Mr Ahern countersigned the £25,000 cheque which was drawn on an AIB Baggot Street, Dublin, account. This account was one into which State funds from the party leader's allowance were paid. Other substantial monies were lodged to the account from time to time, according to Government sources.
It emerged last night that Mr Ahern discussed the matter with the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, some months ago when he heard the cheque had been discovered in the Guinness & Mahon bank. Spokesmen for both Ms Harney and Mr Ahern said yesterday that the two had agreed information about the cheque should be furnished to the Moriarty tribunal, and that this was done.
Labour's spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said yesterday that the spending of the party leader's allowance during Mr Haughey's period of leadership of Fianna Fail had been raised by the Lab our Party before and during a Dail debate on September 10th, 1997.
"At the time, Fianna Fail through Charlie McCreevy, on the Dail record, indicated that the matter had been fully investigated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
"In the light of today's story not even his greatest admirer could have faith in this Taoiseach's powers of investigation," said Mr Rabbitte.
Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Michael Noonan, also called on Mr Ahern to explain "how in September 1997 he had told the Dail he had satisfied himself through his own investigations that Mr Haughey had used this public money `for bona fide party purposes' ".
He said it was disingenuous of the Taoiseach "to use the cloak of the tribunals to seek to avoid an explanation as to why the Dail record has not been corrected in light of the discovery of this £25,000 cheque".
However, Mr Ahern told reporters in Cork yesterday that he had done "everything correct in this case. When these matters were brought to my attention, I considered the appropriate thing to do was to give them to the Moriarty tribunal. I have done that", he said.
"They are now in the course of investigation by the Moriarty tribunal and, of course, I will be able to say more about these matters when the Moriarty tribunal has completed its investigations.
"But I have been told very clearly, my legal advice from everybody is that these matters must under the confidentiality clause be investigated by the tribunal, so I will not be making any statements anywhere about them," he said.
Mr Ahern ruled out a call by Mr Noonan that he should come before the Dail and make a statement on the matter, saying that the legal advice he had received from the Moriarty tribunal prohibited him from doing so.
"No, I cannot not do that. I've been instructed in this case, I cannot do that. It would undermine what the tribunal is doing, and that's a matter for the tribunal, but they've given me very clear advice which I intend to follow, " he said.
"Both Flood and Moriarty were set up by the Oireachtas so that they would deal with certain matters. The matters, of course, have to be confidential until the tribunals have completed them. That is the advice that I've got," he said.