The Fianna Fail party has emerged battered and bruised from yesterday's hearing of the Moriarty tribunal, its defences in tatters and its bona fides in serious doubt. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, fared better, although his memory lapses, his apparent unwillingness to inquire closely into Mr Charles Haughey's unorthodox fund-raising activities and his failure to advise the tribunal of any suspicions in that regard, will provide his political opponents with damaging ammunition. It is not the kind of political climate in which any government would choose to end a Dail session. But Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats have been so beset by controversy in recent weeks that the parties must relish the prospect of operating away from the glare of Dail attention.
The biggest loser yesterday was the Fianna Fail party. The hurriedly contrived defences offered by the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, and by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, were blown away. Both men had insisted Fianna Fail had fully co-operated with the tribunal and that this had been recognised by it. They denied separate party accounts had been kept. And Mr Smith had maintained that anything the Moriarty tribunal had missed was its own fault.
In his opening address, the counsel for the tribunal, Mr Coughlan, made it clear the bona fides of Fianna Fail, in terms of co-operation, were still under critical examination. The tribunal had not concluded the party had deliberately withheld material, or whether there had been an oversight. That was a matter that would be decided by Mr Justice Moriarty when he made his report.
The distinction Fianna Fail attempted to draw between an "abstract" of accounts, and what the tribunal regarded as "a second list" was of no consequence, he suggested. It was the same material. And it was the key that unlocked the names of prominent individuals who made large donations to the party. As for Mr Smith's attempt to blame the tribunal for failing to discover this material, Mr Coughlan said it had asked Fianna Fail last July for documentation that would help it "to identify persons who have made sizeable donations to the party, with a view to ascertaining whether such persons may also have made donations to Mr Charles Haughey's own election expenses or to any other fund which may have been operated by Mr Haughey."
What, he asked, would have been more relevant to that investigation than the "second list" or "abstract" which provided the key to Fianna Fail's cash receipt book? When it was finally produced to the tribunal, this week, it allowed them to identify payments made by Mr Mark Kavanagh and Dr Michael Smurfit.
On the face of it, there appears to be a compelling case. But, given the enormous repercussions that could flow for the Government from a finding that Fianna Fail deliberately obstructed the tribunal, it is right that Mr Justice Moriarty should pronounce on the matter only after all the evidence has been heard and carefully weighed.
In the meantime, the Taoiseach will remain under pressure because of his failure to remember details surrounding the inquiry he instigated in 1996 into the payment of £100,000 made by Mr Kavanagh to Mr Haughey in 1989. Ordinary citizens will find it difficult to accept that the size of the donation was never mentioned, even though Mr Kavanagh complained of not getting an acknowledgment and Mr Ahern subsequently apologised to him.
In the same vein, the Taoiseach's explanation that it hadn't struck him as something he should tell the tribunal about, is extraordinarily limp, given his public statements on the need for "total and full disclosure" to tribunals. To put it bluntly: it was a dreadful day for Fianna Fail and a bad one for the Taoiseach.