FINE GAEL has accused Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat spokesmen of "gravely misrepresenting the facts" after they made fresh allegations that Mr John Bruton misled the beef tribunal in 1992.
The allegations follow a report in yesterday's Sunday Independent that Mr Bruton was informed in 1988 by Mr Alan Dukes, then party leader, that the major fruit importing company, FII, had agreed to donate money to the party, and that the chartered accountancy firm, Coopers and Lybrand, had also been contacted with a view to soliciting a donation.
Mr Dukes had asked Mr Bruton to meet senior figures from these two companies in connection with the fundraising effort, according to the report.
In 1992, however, Mr Bruton told the beef tribunal: "I am not aware of any such seeking of funds during the period in which the tribunal is, with which the tribunal is concerned, because I was not a trustee of the party at that time." This period included 1988, during which Mr Dukes wrote to Mr Bruton about the two companies from which donations had been sought.
Fianna Fail deputy, Mr Tom Kilt, said yesterday the report showed "that John Bruton and Alan Dukes were involved in a systematic plan to solicit funds from business people from 1987. There is now a yawning chasm of credibility between the Taoiseach's sworn evidence to the beef tribunal and his sworn evidence to the McCracken tribunal."
Progressive Democrat deputy, Mr Desmond O'Malley, said: "Reports that John Bruton, as deputy leader of Fine Gael in the late 1980s, personally sought financial contributions from a number of leading Irish businessmen are in conflict with his own sworn testimony given to the beef tribunal in 1992.
The Fine Gael spokesman, however, said that both Mr O'Malley and Mr Kilt "should know from reading the papers this [Sunday] morning that Mr Bruton did not seek funds from these people".
According to the spokesman, Mr Bruton had made it clear when asked about this that he had not, in fact, met representatives of either FII or Coopers and Lybrand, despite being asked to do so. He therefore had not been involved in corporate fundraising at the time.
However, a Fianna Fail spokesman said last night an explanation was needed as to how Mr Bruton could tell the beef tribunal that he was not aware of funds being sought during the period covered by it when he had been informed in 1988 by Mr Dukes that they were being sought.
"The onus is on Mr Bruton to come clean and give a total, detailed and absolutely comprehensive statement about what he was up to."
