FIANNA Fail and the Progressive Democrats have repeated their accusation that the Taoiseach gave conflicting evidence about Fine Gael fundraising practices to the Beef tribunal and Dunnes tribunal.
Both Mr Dermot Ahern, Fianna Fail Chief Whip and Mr Des O'Malley, former leader of the PDs, are also asserting that Mr Bruton employed a play on words to explain the discrepancies in a letter in yesterday's Irish Times.
Responding to Mr Bruton's letter, Mr Ahern described Fine Gael's attitude to the disclosure of funding for political parties as "shifty and evasive".
From the outset, he said, Fianna Fail had been straight up and open in its approach. This was in stark contrast to Fine Gael, which had disclosed information only under pressure and in a drip drip fashion. There had been a resistance to openness and some very strange lapses of memory, he said. Mr Ahern claimed that most serious of all was the blatant conflict in the testimony of Mr Bruton to the two tribunals.
Mr O'Malley, in a letter in today's Irish Times, says the Taoiseach's attempt to explain away the complete contradiction - between his sworn evidence at the beef and Dunnes Stores tribunals regarding his role in party fund raising did not withstand "even the most elementary scrutiny".
Any fair minded reading of what Mr Bruton said at the beef tribunal on June 22nd, 1992, when he sought to pretend that as leader of Fine Gael he was, at best, only peripherally involved in party fund raising at national, level, simply could not be reconciled with what Mr Bruton admitted at this week's Dunnes Stores tribunal, he continued.
The fatal flaw in Mr Bruton's defence was that he was trying to rewrite the actual evidence he gave and the words he used back in June, 1992, Mr O'Malley stated.