The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, has expressed regret to the Taoiseach over his public defiance of the Government's health reform package, writes Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter.
With Mr Ahern under growing pressure last night to deal decisively with the Minister, Mr Smith published a statement in which he said he was "fully committed to the policy and decisions of the Government".
However, Mr Smith insisted that "local opinion and experiences must be taken fully into account" after he publicly expressed concern on three occasions this week about the implications of the reform for the future of services at his local hospital in Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
The Minister's statement, issued shortly before 11 p.m., came after intensive expectation in political circles that a public apology or some other dramatic decision was imminent.
Despite choosing on three occasions this week to question the merits of the Government's health reform policy, Mr Smith claimed in a letter to Mr Ahern that he had "no intention whatever of disagreeing with you publicly on the issue".
Claiming that he had concentrated mainly on the "geographic aspect" of the package, Mr Smith said he had no intention of breaching the rules of collective Cabinet responsibility.
With radical health reform a cornerstone of the Government's strategy, and Mr Ahern seen to publicly admonish errant backbenchers only two months ago, the Taoiseach's handling of Mr Smith's defiance was seen by some senior political sources as a defining moment of his leadership.
As discussions ended last night with a form of words agreeable to Mr Ahern and Mr Smith, it emerged that the Taoiseach had moved on Wednesday to seek a public statement of support from the Minister.
With some senior Fianna Fáil Cabinet members expressing extreme annoyance in private about Mr Smith's statements, backbenchers had also called on Mr Ahern to take action.
In addition, Mr Ahern was said by some senior TDs to have asked a Senator in the past two days to discreetly canvass the views of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party about the affair.
Mr Ahern is believed to have spoken to Mr Smith by telephone soon after his return yesterday from Hungary and Italy before the text of the statement was agreed.
Mr Smith said in his statement that he fully accepted that the change in the law on doctors' working time required "fundamental reorganisation" in acute hospital services.
In an implicit reference to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, who was angered by his statements, Mr Smith noted that he himself had received "full support" from all his colleagues when in Government.
The statement came after it was learned that Mr Ahern had asked Mr Smith to apologise unreservedly for the embarrassment he caused when he spoke against reform policy.
There were suggestions last night that the Taoiseach also asked for a public commitment from Mr Smith to desist from saying that he supported the broad thrust of the policy while repeatedly claiming that it should not apply to Nenagh. There was no such reference in the statement.
Gordon Deegan adds: Some 20,000 people are expected to march in Ennis today in protest at the reform plans based around the Hanly report which said the accident and emergency service in the town's hospital should be downgraded.