Reputation of Taoiseach in tatters - Quinn

The Labour leader said the Taoiseach was responsible for a political crisis which had brought the Government to the brink of disintegration. "His conduct has been at best dishonest and evasive and at worst untruthful and contemptuous of the Dail," said Mr Ruairi Quinn. "One thing is clear - the Taoiseach has acted in a manner unworthy of his office."

Mr Quinn said Mr Ahern had withheld from the Dail information in his possession on a matter so significant that it had already led to the resignation of two members of the judiciary and the Dublin county registrar. He had given an undertaking to the Tanaiste that he would place the information before the Dail and he had failed to do so.

Mr Ahern, he added, had given a series of accounts on the origins of his representations to the Department of Justice on the case which were inconsistent and contradictory. "He was dismissive of the Dail and contemptuous of the right of the public and deputies to know the facts."

Mr Quinn said that over the weekend the Taoiseach had given an account of his conversation with the Tanaiste which he was subsequently forced to admit was untruthful. And finally, he added, in a last desperate attempt to prevent his Government from foundering on the rocks, he was forced to issue a humiliating and abject apology to his Tanaiste.

"Following these events, the political reputation and integrity of the Taoiseach is in tatters, and the cohesion and stability of the Government have yet again been stretched to breaking point. "We know from our recent political history that coalition government only works well when there is total trust between the parties involved."

Mr Quinn said that if the Taoiseach's non-disclosure of his involvement in making representations on behalf of Philip Sheedy had been a single incident, it might not have been so damaging. "But as the Tanaiste well knows, this is just the latest in a growing list of problems and crises which have arisen or been greatly intensified by the failure of the Taoiseach to be honest and open with the Tanaiste and the public."

He added that the Taoiseach's claim that he did not have an adequate opportunity to place the information before the Dail simply defied belief. "The Taoiseach is a parliamentarian of more than 20 years' experience. He knows the rules and procedures as well as any in this House and a lot better than most."

On the role of the Minister for Justice, the Labour leader said that Mr O'Donoghue had claimed in an interview on Radio Kerry that he had never read the Sheedy file, even at the time when this was a matter of raging public and political controversy during April.

"Anyone who has held public office knows that when a controversy breaks the first thing a prudent minister will do is to seek the departmental file so that he can brief himself on the matter."