The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, has confirmed he did not sit the final exams for the third-level qualification his official CV suggests he has. Fianna Fáil has amended its website to this effect, writes Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent.
Up to last week, Mr Smith's education was given on the Fianna Fáil and Department of Defence website as "Educated CBS Templemore, Co Tipperary and UCC (DPA)". This indicated that Mr Smith had received a diploma in public administration from UCC.
However, his spokesman said yesterday that the Minister had not sat the final exams in 1962. Mr Smith worked for the Department of Agriculture at the time and was transferred to Donegal shortly before the exams.
The diploma for which he had studied was not a UCC qualification, although the university facilitated the course by allowing the teaching of it to take place on its premises.
The spokesman said yesterday that in his official CV, Mr Smith gave details of his education, which is not necessarily the same as listing his qualifications.
He argued that because Mr Smith had studied for the diploma on UCC premises, it was therefore not technically incorrect to list "UCC (DPA)" under education.
The controversy comes three years after the Taoiseach removed a reference to the London School of Economics (LSE) from his CV.
When questioned about the reference to the LSE on his CV, Mr Ahern said he recalled having done a correspondence course with the college at some point, but acknowledged he had received no qualification from it.