Calling of the election:President Mary McAleese has said that the Government was fully informed of her intention to visit the United States this week, a trip which had been planned for months.
The Taoiseach suggested earlier this week that the reason he had hurried to Áras an Uachtaráin to seek a dissolution of the Dáil early on Sunday morning was that it was pointed out to him that the President would be out of the country this week.
Mrs McAleese said yesterday: "I cannot leave the country without the Government's permission. That's the first thing. I know that we tell the Government in advance where I'm going to be and they tell me if I can go."
Speaking in New York, halfway through her five-day visit to the US, the President said that she saw nothing unusual about the timing of the Taoiseach's call.
"All I know is that I was well ready on Sunday morning. Ten to eight on Sunday morning is a bit like Piccadilly Circus in the Áras normally, so I did not think that it was particularly abnormal," she said.
Mr Ahern said on Monday that his intention was always to call the election this week, but that it would not be the right thing to go ahead without the President.
He also said that he had not been aware until recent weeks of the dates for Mrs McAleese's trip. Once he had learned of the dates, he believed it would have been possible to lodge the dissolution notice with the three-person Presidential Commission.