The Department of the Environment's decision to award a €300,000 contract to a political supporter of Minister Martin Cullen is to be probed by the Standards in Public Office Commission.
An inquiry by a retired civil servant on behalf of the Government into the contract could still go ahead, Government sources said last night.
In June 2002, Mr Cullen's supporter, Ms Monica Leech was taken on for 12 days work per month with Environment under an emergency contract. Six months later, she held onto the contract after a tender competition with two other companies. Since then, she has earned €303,000 at €800 per day, plus VAT.
Though the embattled Minister welcomed the inquiry, the news that the ethics watchdog is to hold a preliminary inquiry has substantially increased the pressure upon him.
Meanwhile, RTÉ apologised yesterday to the Minister and to Ms Leech following an extremely lewd remark about Mr Cullen and Ms Leech by a caller to RTÉ's Liveline programme, hosted by Joe Duffy.
The remark by a man, who claimed to be a Progressive Democrat supporter, was broadcast because the programme does not operate a time-delay, which would allow offensive remarks to be edited.
In a statement, RTÉ said it "would like to once again disassociate itself from the comments" and apologise for the offence caused: "The caller in question misrepresented himself to the programme and proceeded to make vulgar comments that understandably caused offence to many listeners. The programme immediately cut the caller off and apologised. Joe later apologised once more, disassociating RTÉ from the caller's comments."
Though it does not delay broadcast, RTÉ Radio said Liveline "monitors all its calls and has strict procedures in place to prevent bogus calls getting on air."
On Wednesday, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, responding to questions from the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, acknowledged that the controversy about Ms Leech's appointment and remuneration "would not go away".
The Standards in Public Office Commission said a preliminary inquiry into the Environment contract held by Ms Leech, and a previous contract she held with the Office of Public Works during Mr Cullen's time as Minister of State there, will now be held to "determine if an investigation under the Ethics in Public Acts, 1995 and 2001, should be carried out".
The Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr Niall Callan, and the Chairman of the Office of Public Works, Mr Seán Benton, have been ordered to produce all papers.
Saying that the preliminary examination would take "at least a number of weeks", the commission said the officials must "make discovery on oath of all documents in their possession or control relating to the award of contracts which have been the subject of recent parliamentary and public debate".
Last night, Mr Cullen, who is now in charge of the Department of Transport and who was informed of the commission's decision yesterday, welcomed the inquiry.
"The Minister has been of the view for some time that the matter should be independently investigated and dealt with as expeditiously as possible," said his spokesman.