A DECISION whether to table a motion of no confidence in Ireland's EU Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, will be taken by Fine Gael this week.
The timing of such an unprecedented Dail action may be delayed, however, until EU negotiations on the CAP and Agenda 2000 and on structural and cohesion funding have been completed by March 25th.
Two weeks ago the Dail approved a motion, with Government support, which called on the Commissioner to make a public statement clarifying an alleged donation of £50,000 to him by Mr Tom Gilmartin in 1989. The Taoiseach then formally advised him by letter of the request.
Last Wednesday Mr Flynn faxed a one-page reply to Mr Ahern in which he is said to have restated his earlier position that legal advisers had recommended against such a statement. All appropriate information had already been supplied to the Flood tribunal, the message said, and he was prepared to give evidence there.
Mr Ahern will read the content of the letter into the record of the Dail tomorrow and is prepared to deal with Opposition questions arising from it.
While the Dail has no formal authority or control over Mr Flynn as Ireland's Commissioner, a vote of no confidence would seriously damage his standing in Brussels and make it almost impossible for him to continue. His period in office is due to expire next December.
The Fine Gael front bench will consider the matter at its meeting tomorrow morning, and the party leader, Mr John Bruton, said it would be approached "with calculated deliberation". A formal decision on whether to table a motion of no confidence in Mr Flynn, and the timing of that exercise, would not be taken until the text of the Commissioner's response is known.
Fine Gael's original Dail motion proposed that Mr Flynn be allowed three weeks to decide on his response, before the possibility of a no-confidence motion would be considered.
In a statement yesterday Mr Bruton said Mr Flynn's explanation would be carefully weighed before any other steps would be considered. He said that while a response had been received to the Dail motion, "Commissioner Flynn has not responded at all to a previous request for an explanation from Fianna Fail".
For tactical reasons, it is possible Fine Gael will move a no-confidence motion next week, rather than allow the initiative to slip to the Labour Party.
Fine Gael will have control of Dail private members' time this week and next week. And the Labour Party will decide the content of private members' time for the week of March 22nd-26th.
The possibility of early Dail action was not ruled out by Fine Gael last night. EU negotiations in Brussels had now moved to the hands of the Council of Ministers, a spokesperson said, and "Mr Flynn's relevance is less than it might appear".
A Government spokesman refused to comment on the likely response by the Coalition parties to a motion of no confidence.