Bertie Ahern has moved swiftly to try to put clear blue water between himself and big business in the selection of his Cabinet, writes Denis Coghlan
With a report on Ansbacher offshore accounts due to be published by the High Court in two weeks' time, the Taoiseach needs the embrace of big business the way a baby needs nappy rash. That's why he was so adamant that business interests had not directed the composition of his Cabinet. It was "rubbish", he insisted.
"Golden circles" have the capacity to do terrible political damage. And the name of prominent financier Dermot Desmond still carries a resonance from the Haughey era. Mr Ahern could do without that sort of baggage surfacing in his newly-formed Government. So he tackled the report, carried by the Sunday Independent, head-on.
Mr Desmond, he told reporters, had not telephoned or written to him, or sent a message to him through a third party, lobbying for the reappointment of Joe Walsh as Minister for Agriculture. There had been nothing from that quarter. Nada. Zilch.
The Taoiseach ignored reports that high-flying members of the horsey set had made representations. He admitted there had been some lobbying from farming interests about the benefits of retaining Mr Walsh as Minister for Agriculture. But that was his own view, too, he declared, because continuity was needed in the coming negotiations on CAP reform in Brussels.
As for the motivation behind reported pro-Walsh representations, Mr Ahern blew it away. If the idea was - as stated - to guarantee Mr Walsh's continued direction of Irish horse racing, it hadn't worked.
For the former minister for justice, John O'Donoghue, was given specific responsibility for horse and greyhound racing in a reshuffle of departmental responsibilities, last Thursday.
By Friday, Mr O'Donogue had gone public in the racing press. As a greyhound-owner and an inveterate follower of the gee-gees, for him the dogs and the horses were about the most attractive aspect of his new Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism.
Yesterday's reaction by the Taoiseach to reports of political lobbying contrasted strongly with his initial response.
In an RTÉ This Week interview, conducted on Saturday, he said: "There was an enormous amount of lobbying, as always. There were lobbies from farm groups, from other groups, and not only from colleagues. But I did not change much from where I wanted to go."
Suggestions that he had caved in to business pressure brought Mr Ahern out fighting. But he confined the specifics to Mr Desmond. He did not talk about Mr Walsh's friends in the horse-breeding world. And he did not elaborate on lobbying to retain Michael Smith as Minister for Defence, although it was an open secret at Leinster House that Charlie McCreevy had gone to the wire for him. Where Mr Smith himself was concerned, he assured radio listeners that merit had won through. He should try telling that to Willie O'Dea and Mary Hanafin.
The Opposition parties were in a fever of righteousness. The very idea there might be lobbying for Cabinet positions by big business brought them out in a sweat. Richard Bruton, tipped to become deputy leader of Fine Gael, worried that ministers who owed their places to powerful business interests might be compromised. And he said it raised questions about the proper relationships between business and politics under Fianna Fáil.
Eamon Gilmore spoke of the Taoiseach being forced to change his mind on Cabinet appointments by wealthy business interests. And he found it "extraordinary" that Mr Ahern regarded such lobbying as normal. If these people could influence appointments, he suggested, they could also influence legislation. The Freedom of Information Act would be used to discover precisely what had happened.
Trevor Sargent of the Green Party demanded a detailed disclosure of events. As for stuffing State boards with placemen by outgoing ministers, he called for an independent appointments commission.
What is different about this particular Cabinet-formation exercise is that Mr Ahern openly admitted that intensive lobbying took place. And sources within the Government were willing to identify some of those who had made representations. But the key element is that Mr Ahern, having chosen his 12 Ministers from within Fianna Fáil, was bullied into changing his mind.
This happened before, in 1997, when he was forced to choose between Ray Burke and David Andrews and made a mess of apportioning responsibilities. Joe Walsh also hung on then, with the help of his friends.
To pretend that lobbying doesn't take place is silly. It permeates all levels of government and has done so for decades. It is just more transparent now.
Vested interests flex their muscles openly. For months before budgets are drafted, ministers for finance are bombarded with special pleadings from financial, industrial and business concerns. The same holds true when legislation is being prepared.
Such representations are part of the business of government. But golden circles that directly link businessmen and politicians are another matter. The dividing line is very thin.