The need for a second tribunal of inquiry into possible political impropriety will be considered by the Government on Thursday, faced with Opposition demands for the most profound changes in the history of the State in the way the Dail regulates the conduct of its own members.
Fianna Fail members of the Cabinet, however, are saying that preliminary legal advice is suggesting there may be "constitutional difficulties" in setting up a new inquiry solely to investigate Government decisions taken by former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey during his tenure in office.
The advice was sought from the Attorney General, Mr David Byrne SC, following the publication of Mr Justice McCracken's report of the Dunnes Stores payments-to-politicans tribunal. The report is stark in its condemnation of the behaviour of former office-holders Mr Haughey and Mr Michael Lowry. Mr Justice McCracken is also referring papers relating to Mr Haughey to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision on whether he should be prosecuted for obstructing the work of the tribunal.
The Attorney General gave his advice at an informal meeting yesterday with four Fianna Fail members of the Coalition Cabinet - the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern; the Minister for the Environment and Rural Development, Mr Dempsey; the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern; and the Government Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan. The meeting was not attended by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, who is in the United States, nor her Minister of State, Mr Bobby Molloy. The Fianna Fail Cabinet members now favour asking Mr Justice McCracken to pursue the appeal lodged by his tribunal in the Cayman Islands seeking further information about the £38 million Ansbacher deposits. The Taoiseach has promised to establish expeditiously by legislation a permanent body, such as a Public Ethics Commission, to investigate any accusations of public impropriety that appeared to have substance. He also stated yesterday that the Government expected "the relevant agencies of the State" to take all necessary action on Mr Justice McCracken's report.
It is clear, however, that Fianna Fail ministers in the Coalition will come under considerable pressure from their Progressive Democrats partners and the Opposition parties to set up a second tribunal into Mr Haughey's lavish lifestyle and Government decisions taken by him and Mr Lowry during their terms in office.
Ms Harney said from the United States yesterday that multiple payments from a number of sources would have been required to sustain Mr Haughey's lifestyle. "It begs the question as to the identity and motives of other donors and the extent to which such payments could and did influence Mr Haughey's behaviour as an elected politician, as a Minister and as Taoiseach", she said.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said the manner in which Mr Haughey was funded and the way he dealt with the receipt of those funds required extensive and immediate investigation, not just by the Revenue Commissioners but also by a new tribunal. It was a matter of regret, he added, that Mr Lowry was an elected representative for Fine Gael when such conduct occurred.
The leader of the Labour Party, Mr Dick Spring, said that the interaction of the planning process with the donation of large amounts of money to politicians, local and national, should also be fully investigated.
In a statement following publication of the report, the Revenue Commissioners said that "any action necessary to uphold the implementation of the tax code is being taken". Observers noted the use of the present tense.
