The Taoiseach must explain why good news was invented and bad news suppressed at the request of former minister for education and science, Dr Michael Woods, in the weeks leading up to the 2002 general election, Fine Gael said today.
A Department of Education memo dated April 3rd - 34 days before the general election - says: "The Minister does not wish any bad news letters to be issued to school authorities. Any such information to be held in the short term".
It also emerged that funds to pay for maintaining secondary schools were transferred to the primary schools programme, Fine Gael claimed today.
The election saw Fianna Fáil return to power with increased Dáil seats. The revelation follows a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Fine Gael's Mr Paul McGrath.
The Westmeath TD said: "The information clearly shows that the then Fianna Fáil Minister for Education, Michael Woods manipulated the Secondary Schools Building Programme for political gain before last year's election".
However, the Taoiseach this evening rejected there was any suppression of bad news. "The minister asked that a fair presentation would be put and the minister asked full details would be given.
"Sometimes what happens is someone puts out a bald statement; 'there is no resources, or it's not going to happen'. A minister would like them to put in full more comprehensive data", he said.
Five weeks ago, a similar FOI request by Mr McGrath, revealed misrepresentation about the progress of the Primary Schools Rebuilding Programme.
Mr McGrath said 27 schools included on the Department's website categorised as "ready to go on site" are now listed as "pre-tender or architectural stage", while others are now described as being at "pre-architectural design" stage.
"They are nowhere near ready to begin and, if anything, have moved backwards in the 18 months since the pre-election flurry of fake positive news," Mr McGrath said.
Today's information also showed a ?12 million underspend in the secondary schools programme for 2002. "It doesn't take a massive leap of imagination to make a connection with the additional monies that Minister Woods said he received for the Primary Schools Progamme," Mr McGrath claimed.
Fine Gael has called on the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate the matter and party leader Mr Enda Kenny said the Taoiseach must answer questions about what he termed "systemic and orchestrated abuse".
In particular, he wants the Mr Ahern to explain whether other ministers engaged in similar practises and did he authorise it or was he aware of it.
Dr Woods said in a statement he had not asked civil servants to suppress bad news, and that delays were requested in order to get more money for school building programmes.
But Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said the former minister's explanation was "non-sensical".
"The facts are that the Department under spent to the tune of ?12 million last year on the secondary schools programme. He had the money, but it simply wasn't spent on the secondary schools," Mr Kenny said.
Today's news will cause further embarrassment to the Government over its education record. Two weeks ago, two eight-year-old Limerick schoolboys narrowly escaped injury when the ceiling in their class room collapsed.
Parents and teachers at St Nessan's, in Mungret, had for years campaigned to have the ageing prefab buildings the pupils were being taught in replaced.
Before the general election, parents say they were promised work would begin on five permanent classrooms, but a year later work had not started.
Labour spokesperson on education, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said the news "raised very serious questions" for Dr Woods, the present Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, and both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.
She is writing to the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science, asking him to call Dr Woods and Mr Dempsey to appear and "account for what appears to have been a deliberate policy of manipulation of information for political purposes".
Sinn Féin's, Mr Seán Crowe, said Fianna Fáil had lied to children and parents "as part of a campaign of deception and misinformation that is breathtaking in its cynicism".