The Taoiseach last night looked set to abandon the referendum on judicial accountability because of a failure by the Government and Opposition to reach agreement on the matter.
There was mutual recrimination in the Dail throughout yesterday. Last night after a 40minute meeting between the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, and his Opposition counterparts concluded, the Minister accused them of trying to make a "political rag doll" out of judicial accountability.
Both Fine Gael and the Labour party said they knew the Government would use their objections as a reason not to proceed with the referendum.
The Government believes the Opposition wants to prolong the issue so the Philip Sheedy controversy could be raised again in advance of a general election. Mr O'Donoghue said he could only assume that given their "entirely unreasonable demands" the Opposition had an ulterior motive.
"The truth of the matter is they want to create a row about the judiciary which is not desirable," said the Minister. The Government would now have to reflect on its position.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Mr Alan Shatter said it was "an example of ministerial incompetence". "The Bill will be put in cold storage and the Minister will try to cover up his embarrassment by blaming the Opposition."
Labour party spokesman Mr Brendan Howlin said there had been no new proposals at the meeting that covered "the very real concerns we had outlined".
However, Mr O'Donoghue said he had been so anxious to reach an accommodation he had been willing to delay the date for the referendum until June 14th, a week later than planned. "But it became apparent to me this would not do either."
In the Dail yesterday morning, during a frequently irritable order of business, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said he "did not like the idea of having a referendum without the agreement of the House. That has not been a practice of the House."
Last night's meeting followed an earlier unsuccessful one between the Government chief whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, and his opposition counterparts, Mr Paul Bradford of Fine Gael and Mr Emmet Stagg of Labour. The Opposition parties stressed this was an important matter to them, the separation of powers between the Oireachtas and the judiciary.
Mr Bradford said the Government had published "quite substantial" amendments late the previous night, with 14 amendments "almost creating an alternative Bill". Mr Stagg said he did not see why the referendum could not be held on the same day as a general election.
The main amendments to the Twenty-Second Amendment of the Constitution Bill concerned the reduction from 30 to 20 of the number of members of either the Oireachtas or Seanad needed to sign a motion initiating a motion of impeachment and that a simple majority, rather than a two-thirds majority, as originally proposed, would be necessary. However, Mr O'Donoghue refused to make any changes to the two-thirds majority requirement. The other three referendums planned for June 7th are the Treaty of Nice, the abolition of the death penalty, and Irish participation in the proposed international criminal court. The Government had hoped the legislation for the four would be passed last night.
The Minister for the Environment would then announce the date, which must be at least 30 days after the legislation has been passed.