The Green Party plans to question the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, this week about amendments he made to legislation that paved the way for the takeover of Eircom by Valentia.

The party said a decision in June 2001 to amend the finance bill in favour of the Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT) raised serious questions. According to the Greens, the Minister "rolled over without hesitation" for the ESOT and the Valentia consortium, headed up by Sir Anthony O'Reilly. The ESOT held the shares on behalf of staff in the company.

The party has released various letters it acquired under the Freedom of Information Act that detail discussions between the Department of Finance and the ESOT over the issue of taxing preference shares. Employees were to be paid partly by preference shares as part of the Valentia takover.

In June 2001 Mr McCreevy accepted advice from ESOT representatives that preference shares should not attract a tax liability.

After representations from ESOT's advisers KPMG on June 14th, Mr McCreevy and his officials studied the matter. Mr McCreevy was told on June 21st by a senior official that if the tax changes were not made, the bid for Eircom by Valentia "would be virtually certain to fall". Mr McCreevy subsequently agreed to the changes

Mr Eamon Ryan, the Green's communications spokesman, said: "The letters show that the Eircom board and the unions were very keen to see Valentia buy the company, but what is remarkable is how the Irish Government was very eager to become a consort to the deal.

"We can understand why the venture capital consortia and the trade unions would try to get the very best deal for their members but why was the Government so willing to bend over backwards to make sure that this particular bid was approved," asked Mr Ryan.