The confirmation that Fianna Fail did not disclose crucial information on donations to the party to the Moriarty tribunal will add further acrimony to today's day-long Dail debate on a Labour motion of no confidence in the Government.
The Government seems certain to win today's vote by a three-vote margin with the support of the four independent TDs who traditionally back it.
Questioned about another dramatic day at the tribunal, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said last night it was clear that matters which had arisen were between Fianna Fail and the tribunal and were not a matter for her or the Progressive Democrats. She would have to accept what was said and should not have to comment about the internal matters of another party.
The Taoiseach, she said, had always said he and his party were co-operating fully with the tribunal. "I am not in a position to accept or reject what individuals say. I must not set myself up as a moral guardian of others."
Mr Ahern and Fianna Fail members emerged from yesterday's tribunal sitting with several key questions unanswered and with their claims that they had co-operated fully with the tribunal undermined. The tribunal is now to investigate whether the party deliberately or inadvertently withheld crucial information, while the Taoiseach said he had not given the tribunal certain information because he did not think it was relevant.
During the 6 1/2-hour no-confidence debate today, the last Dail sitting before October 3rd, the Opposition will renew its attack on Mr Ahern in the wake of yesterday's evidence. Labour's finance spokesman, Mr Derek McDowell, said last night that Mr Ahern had serious questions to answer. "We now know that information the tribunal considered very relevant was not handed over by Fianna Fail.
"Any objective person would have known that this would be of particular interest to the tribunal and yet they chose not to supply it. They must explain why."
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said it would be hard for Mr Ahern to explain why he had not told the tribunal of his knowledge of the 1996 inquiry. However, he said he would not comment further until he had read the full transcript of the evidence.
Mr Ahern gave evidence concerning his knowledge of the £100,000 donation which Mr Mark Kavanagh says he gave to Fianna Fail through Mr Charles Haughey in 1989. Just £25,000 of the money went to the party, with the remainder unaccounted for. Mr Ahern confirmed he had inquired in 1996 why Mr Kavanagh never received a receipt for the money. He subsequently apologised to Mr Kavanagh for this.
He said neither he nor Mr Kavanagh had ever mentioned the sum of money involved, and so the discrepancy had never emerged. He had not mentioned the 1996 inquiry to the tribunal before because it had not seemed relevant. He agreed that the information not handed over by Fianna Fail was the key to a full understanding of the ail party's donations list. However, he was not aware in detail of how records had been kept.
The tribunal will now seek to establish whether Fianna Fail's withholding of key information was deliberate or accidental. The tribunal counsel, Mr John Coughlan, said he was not suggesting "at this stage" that the withholding was deliberate but said "that is a matter to be inquired into" and for Mr Justice Moriarty ultimately to decide.
Mr Coughlan made it clear that vital documents without which "the cash receipts book could not be unlocked completely", had not been given to the tribunal despite several requests to Fianna Fail for full information on donations. The documents were handed over only when the tribunal discovered the main cash receipts book did not contain all the information it required.
In addition, he revealed, the tribunal only discovered from a TV3 news report last week that Fianna Fail had inquired into Mr Kavanagh's donation, and that Mr Ahern and Mr Eoin Ryan snr were party to this inquiry.
Mr Coughlan took the unusual step of detailing its correspondence with Fianna Fail on the matter after a series of party figures claimed this week that
