FIANNA FAIL has described as "totally unsatisfactory and unconvincing" the Taoiseach's efforts to reconcile differences between his evidence to the Dunne payments tribunal this week and that given by him to the beef tribunal in 1992 about his role in party fundraising.
"The Taoiseach in 1992 painted an idealistic picture of Fine Gael fund raising being carried out at arm's length basis from the leader," a Fianna Fail statement said yesterday. "From the evidence given on Monday, that clearly bore no relation to reality, either in his own time or in his predecessor's time."
The party called on Mr Bruton to make a "frank acknowledgment" of this to the Dail and to the public.
Fianna Fail also accused the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, of "excusing conduct relating to the beef tribunal that he would not have accepted for a moment from a Fianna Fail Taoiseach". This was "yet another example of Labour double standards".
Asked at the beef tribunal on June 22nd, 1992, if he as leader, or other politicians within the party, were made aware of the particular political contributions made by a company or person, Mr Bruton replied: "No. Now that is not to say that one might not on a random basis become aware of contributions that are made by particular individuals, but there is no systematic informing of politicians of contributions, and my understanding is that . .. it has always been the case that this particular trustee (Sean Murray) doesn't disclose the information to anybody as a general rule, not even to the party leader of the time.
At the Dunne payments tribunal, however, Mr Bruton revealed that in 1991, the year before he gave this evidence, he had been "intensively involved" in fund raising and had contacted many business people himself seeking donations to the party.
In a letter published in The Irish Times today, Mr Bruton points to other evidence he gave at the beef tribunal, saying he did assume a fundraising role after he became party leader.
He says that his evidence to the beef tribunal, during which he suggested he was not, as party leader, generally aware of who made contributions to Fine Gael, referred particularly to election campaigns, and to the period before he became party leader.