The Taoiseach has told his partners in Government that there is "no truth whatever" to a claim in a Sunday newspaper that a current Fianna Fáil Cabinet Minister had received a corrupt payment of £80,000.
The Tánaiste and PD leader said yesterday she had been told by Mr Ahern that there was no truth in the allegations, which appeared at the weekend. She had been given similar assurances by others in the Government.
"I am not going to compromise what I strongly believe in, in the interests of staying in government," Ms Harney said. "I have made inquiries. Obviously if matters like that get into the public domain I would naturally have to make inquiries as leader of the Progressive Democrats."
If there was somebody "out there" with any information they would like to give her, she would like to get it.
Mr Harney was responding to questions about a report in Ireland on Sunday that an unidentified Fianna Fáil Minister in the present Cabinet had received bribes of £80,000 between 1989 and 1992 from a building developer and that this was being investigated by the Flood tribunal.
"I am not a detective. I am not presiding over a tribunal of inquiry. I am in Coalition Government with another party. If matters of this kind come to my attention then clearly I seek assurances. I make inquiries of the leader of that other party and I have done that on this occasion," Ms Harney said.
Asked what assurances she had sought from the Taoiseach before the formation of the last government, about his investigations into alleged corrupt payments to Mr Ray Burke in 1995, Ms Harney said she had spoken to several journalists about this matter and had given evidence to the Flood tribunal.
"When we were approaching the formation of the 1997 government with Fianna Fáil, we took a view that we should not block people lightly from participating in government. We had been very strongly criticised in the past. In the Progressive Democrats, we're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't," she said.
"We had information that was in the public domain at that time and we also had information that was given to us privately which I dealt with at the Flood tribunal and I asked the leader of Fianna Fáil for assurances in relation to that matter, that there had been no corruption involved, that nothing wrong had happened.
"After two weeks or so and several discussions he gave me those assurances. In the spirit of trust going into a coalition government we accepted it at that stage."
Noting that further information came to light, leading to Mr Burke's resignation from Cabinet after only four months in office, she recalled: "I said on that occasion, if we had known in June what we knew in October-November of that year, the issue of his participating in government would never have arisen."
I want to repeat today that it is very clear that Mr Burke was not a suitable person to hold ministerial office."