Tánaiste Michael McDowell said yesterday he did not contribute to last weeks Dáil debate on the Moriarty tribunal report because he was preparing his speech for the PD conference.
He said he had "a very heavy schedule" and opted to get the speech right for the national conference rather than avail of the very small time slot available to him in the Dáil.
Other members of the party could have contributed but they thought that he was going to participate, "and I just simply wasn't available", he said in an interview with TV3's Political Party programme.
On Saturday, Progressive Democrat TD Fiona O'Malley said not contributing to the Moriarty debate was a "missed opportunity" and one she regretted.
"It would have been important to have had a comment from the PDs in response to the Moriarty tribunal," Ms O'Malley said.
Mr McDowell said yesterday there was only 90 minutes for the whole Dáil to consider the report and he would have got about five minutes. "But those five minutes would have prevented me from spending about two or three hours preparing for my conference speech so I had to make a choice."
When asked last Wednesday by journalists why he had not contributed to the debate, Mr McDowell said people well knew the Progressive Democrats' view of Charles Haughey.
Asked yesterday if he thought it was wrong for Bertie Ahern to sign blank cheques, Mr McDowell said: "I think it was wrong" but said the Taoiseach was not the first person to have done it and he had done so in the past.
"I've been treasurer of a few things in my life and, you know, your co-treasurer says 'will you sign a cheque? You're not going to be in Dublin next week' or whatever and you have to do it."
He said there were times when he had to sign salary cheques, but added that Mr Ahern was clearly "overly trusting of Charlie Haughey".