The Taoiseach faces further close scrutiny on the Sheedy affair today after a tense day-long standoff with the Tanaiste yesterday ended in an expression of regret by Mr Ahern for not explaining his involvement in the case.
For several hours yesterday Ms Harney refused to talk to Mr Ahern until he issued a statement saying he had agreed with her last week that he would tell the Dail of his representations in the case.
Amid deep PD anger at Mr Ahern's suggestion on Monday night that Ms Harney's version of events was not accurate, yesterday afternoon's Cabinet meeting was postponed, then cancelled, as ministers from Fianna Fail and the PDs negotiated a statement to be issued by the Taoiseach.
Last night a spokeswoman for Ms Harney said she accepted the Taoiseach's statement, but the relationship between the two appears to have been patched up rather than healed. There appears to be no threat of an imminent pull-out from government by the Progressive Democrats, but the episode has damaged relations between Mr Ahern and Ms Harney and between the Government parties.
Last night a spokesman for the Taoiseach said relations between the two Government parties were now "fine", but a spokesman for Ms Harney said: "It has been a bad few days for the Government."
Today Mr Ahern will make a statement to the Dail outlining his account of the approach he received in July last year to make representations on behalf of Philip Sheedy to have him given day release from prison to work on a FAS scheme. His office inquired of the Department of Justice as to whether this was possible but was told that Sheedy - convicted of drunken driving causing death - had a review date set for his sentence in October 1999, and that therefore such prison release was not possible.
Mr Ahern says he was told on April 12th last that a record of this representation was on file. He said last night: "In my discussions with the Tanaiste, Mary Harney TD, we agreed that the fact of my representations in this case needed to be made public. It was agreed that this would be done in the Dail last week when I was answering questions on the case relating to the office of the Chief State Solicitor and its dealings with the DPP.
"I accept that I was at fault in not finding some way of informing the Dail of my representations. I will be dealing further with this in the Dail tomorrow [today, Wednesday]. In the meantime I have expressed my regrets personally to the Tanaiste."
Mr Ahern's phone call to Ms Harney came around 8 p.m. last night, after more than five hours of talks between the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, for Mr Ahern, and the Ministers of State Ms Liz O'Donnell and Mr Bobby Molloy, for Ms Harney. Last night the Opposition concentrated on adding pressure on Ms Harney to leave government. "It gets down to the credibility of the Tanaiste," said the Fine Gael leader, Mr Bruton. "Is she prepared to put up with this sort of behaviour?"
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said: "Clearly she can't stay in government if she can't trust the person who is Taoiseach."
The Progressive Democrats TDs, senators and advisers met for more than an hour in Ms Harney's office yesterday afternoon to discuss their response to the affair.
PD anger centred on Mr Ahern's response on Monday when asked about the PDs' assertion that Ms Harney had asked the Taoiseach twice to put his involvement in the case on the public record. "I don't think Mary Harney did that," Mr Ahern said. "I read very interesting comments in the paper about what I was asked to do. I know what I was asked to do and I'll talk to Mary Harney about that."