Differences have emerged between the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach about closing down the Mahon tribunal.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell yesterday afternoon raised the question of winding up the Mahon tribunal due to spiralling legal costs which may end up exceeding €1 billion. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern appeared to contradict Mr McDowell some hours later.
Coincidentally, the Editor of The Irish Times, Geraldine Kennedy, and journalist Colm Keena, were served with a special summons by the Mahon tribunal yesterday afternoon to appear before the High Court on Monday week. The summons seeks to compel them to disclose sources and documents relating to payments to the Taoiseach.
They have been ordered to appear before the court on February 26th in relation to Mr Keena's article, which was published last September. Both journalists refused to answer questions from tribunal lawyers which they felt would help identify the source of their information and said they had destroyed the documents for the same reason.
Mr McDowell said yesterday he believed that the tribunal could now have accumulated costs, including third-party costs, which will exceed €1 billion and "at some stage we have to ask ourselves is it worthwhile proceeding any further in those circumstances".
He added: "It can't go on for ever. One billion is a lot of money to spend on investigating corruption in our local government processes.
"I think people already have a fairly clear view of what went wrong and that there was corruption and you know at some point that billion could be spent on hospitals, roads, prisons, pensions and other things."
He said: "We have to ask ourselves do we keep going on relentlessly to the bitter end pouring more and more money into an inquiry which is really just confirming a picture, the gist of which we have.
"The Government wants to take its time to see what the consequences in relation to various tribunals would be of implementing the decision which is already made and a few weeks won't make a substantial difference."
However, in a pre-recorded interview to be broadcast on Newstalk today, the Taoiseach appears to contradict Mr McDowell's suggestion that the Mahon tribunal should be wound up and said he was "not going to interfere".
"All I want to do is clear my name. I'm not going to call for the end of something I was subject to. I was up in front of it because of the position I held. Years ago we decided in all tribunals that there was a date they had to be finished by and if it wasn't reached then the fees would come in at a lower level."
He said he would be the last person in the world that would want to see the tribunal frustrated, particularly the aspect to do with his party. "I don't think we're going to see them winding up. I'm certainly not going to interfere".
A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach said last night that there was no question of the Government closing down the tribunal.
Last night Minister for the Environment Dick Roche appeared to support Mr McDowell. He said: "It is my ambition that the tribunal concludes its work as effectively, efficiently and as economically as possible. . . I am a big defender of the tribunal but there has to be finality to it".
A spokesman for the Tánaiste said last night that Mr McDowell has had informal discussions with Ministers concerning the Mahon tribunal in recent times and the matter was in his mind when he was asked about it by journalists yesterday.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said he was astonished by what he described as the Government's move to end Mahon's investigation into political corruption. Labour's Eamon Gilmore described Mr McDowell's comments as "sinister and disturbing".