The Coalition is engulfed in a new controversy over the conflicting accounts of Government members about the Taoiseach's inquiry into payments to Mr Ray Burke.
New questions raised by the Tanaiste's evidence to the Flood Tribunal yesterday have increased the possibility that Mr Ahern will be asked to give evidence about the basis of the assurances he gave to Ms Harney before Mr Burke's appointment to the Cabinet.
Just days after the most serious Coalition rift over the Sheedy case has been patched up, the Opposition parties are indicating they will pursue ail the discrepancies between statements made by Ms Harney, Mr Dermot Ahern, and the Taoiseach.
The Fine Gael spokesman on Finance, Mr Michael Noonan, said last night that if, as it now appeared, Ms Harney had known all along about the £30,000 donation to Mr Burke and accepted his appointment to Government knowing it, "she has the most difficult questions to answer both to the public and, possibly, her own party". The Taoiseach had even more difficult questions to answer, he added.
"We are now on the brink of the complete and total breakdown of trust between the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste, and between the Government and the people of this country", he said. The deputy leader of the Labour Party, Mr Brendan Howlin, said it was quite clear there were fundamental conflicts in the evidence. Based on the testimony of two members of the Government given this week - Mr Dermot Ahern and Ms Harney - the Taoiseach accepted that Mr Burke had received £30,000 from Mr James Gogarty of JMSE, even though JMSE denied it. Mr Bailey also denied making a payment.
Ms Harney, likewise, accepted the Taoiseach's assurances about Mr Burke without apparently asking him how he had reached his conclusion. Mr Howlin asked: "How could Mr Bertie Ahern have believed that the £30,0000 was above board when the donor was denying that it had been made in the first place?"
The Taoiseach repeatedly refused to answer questions from journalists yesterday on Ms Harney's evidence to the tribunal. "I haven't heard what she said. Until I read it over the weekend, I've no comment to make," he said at Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, where he was opening the new headquarters of the Western Development Commission at Dillon House, home of the late James Dillon, former Fine Gael leader.
Again in Longford, on a local election constituency campaign tour, he declined to comment, stating that he had been on the road and had received no news. When asked about the specific aspects of Mr Dermot Ahern's investigation and Ms Harney's knowledge of it, Mr Ahern replied: "I don't want to go into it until I read the texts."
Ms Harney revealed for the first time yesterday the basis of the Taoiseach's assurance to her about Mr Burke. She told the tribunal that before the formation of the Government on June 25th, 1997, Mr Ahern assured her that Mr Burke had received £30,000 from Mr James Gogarty of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering, that he had retained £20,000 for his own election campaign and sent £10,000 to Fianna Fail.
On June 11th, 1997, Ms Harney said Mr Ahern told her he proposed to include Mr Burke in the Cabinet. She and Mr Ahern had conversations about allegations on planning matters up to the day before the Government was formed, Ms Harney told the tribunal.
She also disclosed that Mr Gabriel Grehan, a director of JMSE, had informed her during this period that "it was his understanding that JMSE had made a payment of £30,000 to Ray Burke, that this sum of money had also been matched by a sum from Bovale, Michael Bailey, that the money was paid in order to secure planning permission or rezoning of the land". He had no first-hand knowledge of this matter, she added.
Ms Harney asked Mr Ahern to investigate the allegations and assure her no wrongdoing had occurred.
