THE Tanaiste, Mr Spring, had a number of questions to answer about the Dunnes Stores contribution to the Aquadome in Tralee, the Fianna Fail junior spokesman on Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, said last night.
The Labour Party had taken a very high-profile position supporting the anti-apartheid stance of Dunnes Stores workers, he said, yet it had "no problem" accepting a contribution from the man the workers had been in dispute with. There was a question of principle to be addressed, Mr Kitt said.
Mr Spring said yesterday that every business in Tralee, as well as Mr Ben Dunne, had been approached and asked to contribute towards building the £4.4 million Aquadome leisure centre in the town.
He was commenting on a report in yesterday's Sunday Tribune that he had asked Mr Dunne to contribute to the leisure centre-cum-swimming pool. Mr Dunne contributed £50,000. Mr Spring himself invested in the project and confirmed in the Register of Members' Interests in Dail Eireann that he owned 1,000 shares, purchased at £1 each.
He said yesterday that he had informed his Ministerial colleagues of the contribution to the Aquadome when the Dunnes Stores controversy broke two weeks ago.
In an RTE radio interview, Mr Spring said that a task force was set up to develop a project to create jobs. The Aquadome idea was agreed at a cost of £4.4 million, of which £1.2 million was to be raised locally.
"Effectively, that money had to be raised by the people of Tralee and the businesses of Tralee. I can say we knocked on every door to get that £1.2 million and we were successful. It is not an investment by me. Kristi (his wife) and me put in £1,000 as a contribution, as I'm sure my fellow politicians in North Kerry did likewise. We expected every member of the community to contribute. My mother put in £100."
Asked if he had knocked on Mr Ben Dunne's door, Mr Spring said: "Everybody we knew would have contacted Dunnes Stores to ask for a contribution, the same as we contacted the other supermarkets in the town as well and all the businesses in Tralee. We raised about £500,000 from the corporate sector. I was part of the task force and I was anxious that this project be successful because we had lost a lot of jobs in the eighties."
When it was put to Mr Spring that Mr Dunne was giving money to the Labour Party for Mrs Mary Robinson's election campaign, Fine Gael, and to Tralee over a short number of years, the Tanaiste said: "I have had three conversations with the Dunne family: one in relation to the Aquadome; the second was a few months ago with Mrs Margaret Heffernan because Dunnes Stores is a very large customer of a knit-wear factory which has 210 very important jobs and l wanted encourage her to keep their business with the company which had difficulties over the last two years. My last conversation was trying to get release of the Price Waterhouse report, which I believe the public is entitled to get."
He was asked why he had not disclosed that Dunnes had been approached for the contribution towards the Tralee project at the time the Labour Party announced that it had received a contribution for the presidential election. Mr Spring said he was not at that meeting of the party. He was meeting the Prime Minister of Israel at the time. "I did inform my ministerial colleagues when this controversy broke of the circumstances in relation to the Aquadome and I had nothing to hide."
It was put to Mr Spring that the Sunday Tribune story also said informed sources had said Mrs Robinson would not have approved of a contribution from Mr Dunne and that she would have returned it if she had known about it.
Mr Spring: "As I understand it, the President is not quoted in that article and because of my Constitutional position I am not going to engage in that discussion."
Asked if he hoped former minister, Mr Michael Lowry, would produce a full picture of the situation, Mr Spring said he hoped Mr Lowry would give all the information to the Dail next Thursday.
. The President, Mrs Robinson, was aware Mr Ben Duane's name featured on a list of 1,000 businessmen who were approached for funds for her Presidential campaign.
The list was compiled by her election campaign committee, according to informed sources.
While Mrs Robinson was aware Mr Duane's name was on the list, she did not know that he had contributed £15,000 to her election campaign until the Dunnes Stores controversy broke two weeks ago.
The sources denied reports the President was upset by the contribution. She knew Mr Duane's name was on the list and had no difficulty with that, they said.