Keaveney barred from part of meeting

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said it was not tenable for party chairman Colm Keaveney to remain in the room during yesterday's executive board meeting when Government business was being discussed.

At yesterday's meeting it was agreed unanimously that Mr Keaveney should withdraw from the part of the meeting during which Mr Gilmore delivered his political report.

Mr Keaveney has defied calls from the party leadership to relinquish his position as chairman since he voted against the Government over contentious budget measures and lost the party whip in December.

"Clearly it wasn't tenable that you could have discussions about Government business or about the business of the parliamentary party or about political matters when someone who has voted with the opposition was in the room," Mr Gilmore said today.

"We did find a way in which that can be dealt with and that is that he withdraws from the meetings when my report and when political issues are under discussion."

He said the Labour Party's rules did not anticipate a senior party officer would vote with the Opposition. He was speaking on RTE Radio One's This Week programme.

"I have no intention of being distracted from the work that we have to do in Government and the party has no intention of being distracted from that work."

He said it was a matter for the party membership whether or not they wanted to table the issue of Mr Keaveney's continued chairmanship at the next party conference in the autumn.

Asked about The Irish Times report that the Workers' Party admitted to illegal activity in letter to East Berlin in late 1980s, Mr Gilmore said: "As far as my own time in the Workers’ Party is concerned I’ve never done anything but be absolutely opposed to illegality."

He said it was well known that he and others left the Workers' Party in the early 1990s.