Green Party chairman John Gormley has questioned evidence given yesterday by Minister of State Ivor Callely to the committee examining the Travers report.
Mr Gormley says Dáil records suggest Mr Callely could not have briefed the Taoiseach on the issues of charges for nursing-home care when he said he did.
Mr Callely told the Oireachtas Committee on Health that after a meeting of senior health managers in Dublin's Gresham Hotel in December 2003 heard of concerns that the charging of long-term residents of state-run institutions could be illegal, he briefed Bertie Ahern to this effect.
"My recollection is that I informed the Taoiseach in the course of a Dáil vote," he said. He said believed that this was not on the day of that meeting - December 16th - but on one of the other Dáil sitting days that week - December 17th or 18th.
Mr Gormley said last night that according to the Dáil record, Mr Ahern did not vote in the Dáil on either of those days.
He said there was now a need for Mr Ahern and Mr Callely "to explain how they could have had a conversation during a Dáil vote about the eligibility issue on either the 17th or 18th of December 2003, when in fact the Taoiseach, according to the Dáil records, was not present for any vote on those particular days."
According to the Travers report, Mr Callely recalled that he spoke to the Taoiseach on this issue, that the Taoiseach did not respond when he spoke to him and that the conversation took place during the course of a Dáil vote on an "unrelated matter".
A spokesman for the Taoiseach said last night that Mr Ahern "has never stated which day Deputy Callely aproached him on this issue". Mr Ahern told the Dáil last month that he had a conversation with Mr Calllely on the matter, but did not say when.
Mr Gormley said notes taken on the meeting between Department of Health management and health board chiefs recorded that Mr Callely said he would speak to Mr Ahern and Minister for Health Micheál Martin.
Attempts to contact Mr Callely last night were unsuccessful.