THE Minister for the Environment, Mr Brendan Howlin, had accused Fianna Fail ministers of deliberately misleading their Labour colleagues over the Duggan case to save the Reynolds government, the London libel jury heard yesterday.
During 1 1/2 hours of selected video extracts from Mr Howlin's evidence to the Dail committee's hearing into the fall of the government the jury heard the minister repeatedly say Fianna Fail ministers implied that the Duggan case had been discovered only following Mr Albert Reynolds's Dail speech on November 15th, 1994, instead of the previous day.
"I had no reason to ask about the timing of this new discovery because all the previous discussions of that night led me to believe, and I believe now were designed to lead me to believe, that it [the Duggan case] was an over night discovery ... I did not feel that it would occur to me that in fact, Fianna Fail ministers knew about this and withheld it from the Dail", Mr Howlin told the committee.
Both the Sunday Times and Mr Reynolds's legal team selected which extracts should be shown to the jury.
The jury heard Mr Howlin describe how he tried to negotiate with Fianna Fail to save the coalition following deep concern over Mr Reynolds's November 15th speech supporting Mr Harry Whelehan's appointment to the High Court presidency.
After discussions with Fianna Fail ministers, Mr Howlin told the committee, he had drafted three sentences which he believed "met the requirements of the Labour Party" and which were to be included in Mr Reynolds's Dail speech the following day.
What is now clear is that I was misled throughout that night by Mr [Charlie] McCreevy because he was actually aware of it [the Duggan case] from Monday. He denied it ... When the Tanaiste made his final speech ending the government he [Mr McCreevy] came to my office and said `You don't understand, we didn't understand the Duggan case on the Monday'. This was the fool's pardon phase of the argument. I recall vividly what Mr McCreevy said to me, which was `You are hanging us for the wrong offence'."
At 3.30 p.m., Mr James Price QC, for the Sunday Times, concluded his case. The hearing was adjourned until today, when Mr Price will begin his closing speech.