A row broke out last night after the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, accused the Taoiseach of exploiting the immigration issue for political gain.
The allegation was angrily denied by a Government spokesman, who said Mr Bruton had deliberately misrepresented Mr Ahern's position "when the Taoiseach is here in Europe working for Ireland and representing Ireland". Mr Bruton, who is here for a meeting of the European People's Party, called on the EU summit to condemn politicians who exploited the immigration issue, and claimed the Taoiseach had done this. "It's easy to take a high moral stance against xenophobia in Austria," he said. "It's not as easy to do it in your own street or constituency."
The row erupted after Mr Bruton, who last week accused the Taoiseach of using the immigration issue for party political advantage, said that "xenophobia in Europe is not confined to Austria". Contacted by The Irish Times, he repeated his view that Mr Ahern had exploited the immigration issue for political gain.
"His remarks in Australia were not accidental or incautious," said Mr Bruton. "He actually expressed his approval of the Australian immigration system, including its provisions for detention, knowing it would strike a chord with a section of the Irish electorate.
"His putting of those sorts of ideas into the public debate in the way he did was for a political purpose, not just some form of idle intellectual speculation." Mr Bruton said Mr Ahern was not alone in exploiting the issue, and there were many in Europe who were "far worse".
He gave the example of Spain, where, he said, a mayor who proposed barring immigrants from living in the centre of town was re-elected with a much increased majority.
The Government spokesman trenchantly denied that Mr Ahern had sought to put the idea of detention of immigrants on the political agenda. "The Taoiseach visited an immigrant resource centre in Australia. He was looking at that country's system of integrating refugees - an immigrant resource centre dealing with language training and other issues. His focus was on the integration of refugees."
He claimed that Mr Bruton had consistently "chosen to misrepresent the Taoiseach, and accuse him of supporting detention centres. This utterly goes beyond the bounds of what we would have thought is normal opposition political behaviour. He is stooping that low, because he has nothing else to add to this debate.
"He's the one who has made a political issue out of this to make political gain."