FIANNA Fail is seeking the resignation of the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, and the removal from office of Mr Niall Stokes to restore public confidence in the impartiality of the Independent Radio and Television Commission.
The party's spokeswoman, Ms Sile de Valera, plans to table a Dail motion seeking the resignations tomorrow if Fianna Fail does not succeed, by other parliamentary means, to remove Mr Stokes from office over the perceived conflict of interest between his roles as IRTC chairman and membership of Mr Higgins's fundraising committee.
The motion to be tabled by Ms de Valera, however, will not take priority over other business tomorrow since it is not a motion of no confidence in the Minister. The motion targets Mr Stokes's position.
Amid increasing disquiet in Labour ranks that the standards it urges on its opponents have been breached in this case, Mr Higgins has admitted it was "a mistake" for Mr Stokes to append his name to a booking form for a Labour fundraising function. But he did not believe that Mr Stokes should resign.
While spokesmen for the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste offered no public comment on the latest Labour fundraising row, the former Fine Gael leader, Mr Alan Dukes, said he believed Mr Stokes should resign.
"I think he should resign," Mr Dukes said. "I wouldn't go any further than that at the moment. We have not seen any reaction from Michael D. that indicates that he sees anything wrong with it. It is a bit like Eithne. All she saw wrong was the harp on the notepaper."
The general secretary of the Labour Party, Mr Ray Kavanagh said yesterday what happened in Mr Higgins's case was innocent. It was unacceptable but would not happen again.
The Labour Party would continue to demand the highest standards in politics in this country, he said in an RTE interview. "Yes, we have been embarrassed by this letter and we have to say to Labour Party voters and supporters and hard working Labour Party TDs that this is something that we do not want and we do not stand over."
Following the controversies involving the Minister of State, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, and Mr Stokes, it is understood the executive of the Labour Party has prepared a new set of guidelines governing fundraising.
Mr Higgins told The Irish Times last night that no pressure had been put on him, or on Mr Stokes, to resign. He had not been talking to the Tanaiste and Labour Party leader, Mr Spring, over the weekend.
"Niall Stokes sent no letter to anybody. He didn't contact anybody. His name got involved in the booking sheet accompanying the letter. He was asked by Kevin O'Driscoll [the Minister's programme manager] did he know any musicians. That was a mistake," Mr Higgins stated.
The whole thing had been blown out of all proportion, he said. "If the non removal of his name from the booking ticket has caused the possibility for any misconstruction, of course I would regret that," he added.
The PD spokesman, Mr Michael McDowell, has written to the Taoiseach pointing out that the Radio and Television Act 1988, establishing the IRTC, clearly envisaged that it would be a quasi judicial independent licensing and supervisory body. Its members could only be removed from office for stated misbehaviour, and then only by a resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas, he said. He viewed Mr Stokes's fundraising activity as "misbehaviour" within the meaning of the 1988 Act.
Mr Stokes refused to talk to The Irish Times yesterday. Through Mr Pat Montague, the former, Labour Party youth officer who handles public relations for the IRTC, Mr Stokes said the position had not changed, as far as he was concerned. There was no point in talking. He had made his views clear, Mr Montague added.
