The Taoiseach last night maintained he had acted correctly at all times in relation to a £25,000 Fianna Fail cheque he countersigned which ended up in an account controlled by Mr Charles Haughey's financial adviser Mr Des Traynor in June 1989.
The cheque was signed by Mr Haughey and countersigned by Mr Ahern, according to a report in this morning's Irish Independent. It was drawn from an account in AIB Baggot Street, Dublin which was in the names of Mr Haughey, Mr Ahern and former Minister for Finance Mr Ray MacSharry, according to the report.
It ended up in an account in Guinness & Mahon Bank which was controlled by Mr Traynor, who managed Mr Haughey's personal finances.
Last night Fine Gael's finance spokesman Mr Michael Noonan demanded a full statement on the matter from Mr Ahern.
He pointed out that on September 10th, 1997 Mr Ahern told the Dail he had satisfied himself by investigation that Mr Haughey had used the party leader's allowance "for bona fide party purposes".
Mr Noonan said there was "an unavoidable obligation on Mr Ahern to make a full public statement" explaining why he said this.
A Labour Party spokesman said early this morning that the party would not comment until it had carefully studied the report.
It was confirmed last night that the account from which the cheque was paid was one in which funds from the Party Leader's Allowance, paid by the State to leaders of Dail parties, were paid during Mr Haughey's leadership of Fianna Fail.
Other monies were paid into this account as well. It is not known why funds from this account ended up under Mr Traynor's control. The AIB Baggot Street account was separate from other Fianna Fail accounts.
According to sources quoted in the report, a practice existed in relation to the management of this account whereby cheques were often countersigned before being used.
It is understood that the existence of the cheque was discovered by an investigation separate from the Moriarty tribunal, which is investigating payments to politicians including the finances of Mr Haughey.
This discovery was notified to Fianna Fail several months ago, and Mr Ahern then told the Moriarty tribunal of the cheque, the Taoiseach said last night.
Mr Ahern insisted last night that he had behaved correctly in this matter at all times. "Since this matter was brought to my attention as leader of Fianna Fail and I in turn brought it to the attention of the Moriarty tribunal, the consistent and repeated advice from my legal counsel has been to refrain from public comment and to maintain the confidentiality of my ongoing contacts with and assistance to the tribunal.
"I have, because of recent events, through my legal advisers, sought the views of the tribunal on the public disclosure of facts relating to these matters. The tribunal, in turn, have said that this investigation is ongoing and is being conducted as part of the confidential phase of the tribunal's work. It is the tribunal's considered view that confidentiality must be maintained for this phase in order to protect the constitutional rights of individuals.
"As Taoiseach, I have sought the opinion of the Attorney General in his public interest capacity, and he has informed me that he agrees with the views expressed by the tribunal requesting confidentiality.
"In the circumstances, I intend to follow all of this advice and fully respect the tribunal's request for confidentiality.
"Therefore, I will not comment further on this matter until after it has been dealt with by the tribunal."