The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has attempted to defuse the controversy surrounding the production of Fianna Fáil election literature in the Department of Education by describing the affair as a "nothing".
While the Standards in Public Office Commission is set to seek information this week from the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, the Taoiseach offered tacit support yesterday to Mr Dempsey.
Mr Ahern now claims to have misunderstood the nature of the material given to Fianna Fáil when he said on Friday that he would examine the issue and described the preparation by civil servants of documents for the exclusive use of political parties as "unusual".
At Arbour Hill yesterday, the Taoiseach said: "I understood from the report I got on Friday that there was a whole booklet presented. That's the way it was presented to me on Friday morning by a member of the media. Of course I found out that wasn't true at all. It was a series of photocopy."
Mr Ahern went on to say that the gathering of information by the Department was of no importance whatever, "because that's the business that we're all in, giving out information".
He added: "If there was any difficulty it was at the technical presentation level, that you shouldn't use folders of Departments and that's about it. I mean I think this is really a nothing."
The Taoiseach implied that other Departments had given information to Fianna Fáil. "Actually Education's was late and that's how it happened to be separate in the first place," he said. Such information was available to any party, he said.
