A new strategy was adopted by the Government this week to deal with the continuing flood of media allegations engulfing Fianna Fail. It is reminiscent of the Haughey era.

The first signal of the change in tactics came last Sunday when some Fianna Fail Ministers, sick to the teeth of "guilt by association", set out to establish new mechanisms to ring-fence the Taoiseach and handle media inquiries.

This was followed on Monday by the controversial interview by the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy.

The new strategy first manifested itself on Tuesday. After special notice questions on the Sunday newspaper allegations were ruled out of order in the Dail, two political correspondents - Una Claffey of RTE and myself - were invited to separate briefings on the GTech and Finance Act controversies.

I agreed to the briefing on condition that I could state what was happening, lest I be compromised on the Taoiseach not addressing the issues in the Dail. That was agreed with the "facilitator" of the Department of Finance briefing, Mr Gerry Hickey, the Taoiseach's programme manager.

The briefing with two assistant secretaries in the Department of Finance went ahead at 7 p.m. These senior civil servants seemed, at the end, to be embarrassed to be put in the position of giving a clearance certificate to the Taoiseach. They were there, they said, at Mr Ahern's request.

The second instalment of the strategy was put into effect on The Irish Times report about the £10,000 being transferred from a passport investor's account in ICC Bank to a Fianna Fail party account.

To illustrate the strategy it is necessary to show the nature of the three contacts between the senior Government source - whom the Taoiseach identified in the Dail as his programme manager - and The Irish Times.

Following inquiries by my colleague Cliff Taylor and myself, The Irish Times was aware that former minister Ray Burke was alleging that Mr Ahern had access to and control of money relating to an account in the ICC before Mr Hickey was contacted on Friday of last week.

He was telephoned because the Taoiseach and the Government spokesman, Joe Lennon, were in Waterford. Mr Hickey was willing to take the queries. He said he had anticipated the allegations and was in a position to answer them on behalf of the Taoiseach.

Did Mr Ahern or anyone on his behalf have control of or access to an account in ICC? No. Untrue. He has never had an account of his own, nor has Fianna Fail, in ICC.

Was Mr Ahern a beneficiary of any transaction relating to passports in ICC? No.

Mr Hickey also stated that Mr Ahern was never personally involved "in any of that passports thing". There were a lot of recommendations and requests, but none was personally based in his constituency or anything like that.

Last Tuesday afternoon, as the invitation to a Finance briefing was being offered, I raised the ICC issue. I informed Mr Hickey that The Irish Times was still working on the story. "I know," I said, "that I am just not asking the right question. There is something there."

Armed with enough facts to write the report, The Irish Times contacted Mr Hickey again late on Wednesday afternoon. He confirmed that money was transferred from the ICC Bank account of a passport investor to a Fianna Fail account in another financial institution in 1993 while Mr Ahern was treasurer of the party. The word "diverted", used by Mr Hickey, was subsequently used in The Irish Times report. He did not offer any explanation for the transfer of the money.

Mr Ahern attacked The Irish Times report as "a load of lies" and "ball of smoke" on Thursday morning. He told the Dail on Thursday afternoon: "My programme manager categorically denies that he said that the money was from an investment account." That is correct. Mr Hickey said that a small sum of money had been diverted from a passport investor's account.

Despite the new attack-and-deny strategy, the Taoiseach has admitted that £10,524.59 was transferred from a joint deposit account in the ICC in the names of Jerry Lindzon, the passport investor, and Brian O'Carroll, the facilitator, to a Fianna Fail fund-raising account in the names of Reynolds/Ahern in July 1993. It was an interest-free loan. It has not yet been repaid, nor has any request been made to repay it.

At the end of the week it transpires that the Lindzons opened three accounts simultaneously in the ICC in 1991 with the intention of obtaining an Irish passport. The first two were investment accounts. The third, a joint deposit account, was set up for the purposes of making a political donation. Mr Lindzon's money was used for the interest-free loan.

The new media strategy, outlined above, does no justice to Mr Ahern. It must sit uncomfortably with his programme manager, with whom this correspondent has always had the most honourable dealings.