The Cabinet has almost finalised tighter controls on the awarding of department contracts and will unveil them soon, the Taoiseach has said.
He was responding to questions in the Dáil on the controversy over the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen's, awarding of valuable contracts to the PR executive Ms Monica Leech. The Green Party had called today for a tightening of standards relating to the awarding of such contracts.
A report by the former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners Mr Dermot Quigley, last month cleared Mr Cullen of any wrongdoing.
And the Standards in Public Office Commission said last night the evidence before it did not establish a prima faciecase that would have warranted an investigation within the terms of the relevant legislation into Mr Martin Cullen's awarding of €300,000 worth of contracts to to Ms Leech.
Mr Ahern again defended Mr Cullen in the Dáil this evening and said new procedures would be announced soon.
He said: "The matters that have been the subject of controversy have been examined in detail by two separate bodies. There is nothing to suggest that Mr Cullen acted inappropriately in relation to the matters he was under question on.
"The Cabinet has discussed and practically finalised those matters and we will announce those very, very shortly.
"Hopefully that will alleviate any of the pressures around this issue [and] tighten up the system in relation to procurement."
The Department of Finance is also carrying out a review of the issues raised the Quigley report published last month.
Mr Ahern was replying during Leaders' Questions to the Green Party leader Mr Trevor Sargent, who asked the Taoiseach if he was sure there wouldn't be a recurrence of such matters.
Mr Sargent said: "I don't know how the Taoiseach can say he was exonerated."
He called on Mr Ahern to ensure he "put down criteria so we're not going to have a repeat of this debacle again."
The Greens had today called for reform of the Standards in Public Office Commission after the body decided not to open a full inquiry into the awarding of the contracts by Mr Cullen.
Mr Cullen was minister for the environment at the time the contracts for work with the Office of Public Works and the Department of the Environment were awarded.
Green Party TD Mr Ciaran Cuffe, the party's environment and local government spokesman, told RTÉ radio: "I think what both the Quigley Report and the Standards in Public Office Commission report has shown is that the standards are very low, the bar is set too low."
"I think it is not acceptable for a minister to tackle as the most urgent issue the employment of a PR consultant."
He added later: "I think what this has shown is a need to reform the legislation on ethics in public office, to reform the Standards in Public Office Commission so that it is given a bit of clout and where there is the perception of impropriety, or impropriety, that there should be a clear investigation.
"It is not good enough for somebody to be working on a very lucrative contract for a minister's office and also to be running fundraisers in the constituency. There is a clear conflict of interests in my mind about this and the Green Party is concerned about it.".
Additional reporting: PA