The Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, has warned that as long as Bertie Ahern remains in office, the attention of the Government, the Oireachtas and the media will focus on his financial and tax problems to the detriment of important problems facing the country.
However, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin accused the Opposition parties of politicising the Mahon tribunal and trying to usurp its role by refusing to wait for its findings in relation to payments to Mr Ahern.
Mr Gilmore, in a speech to his party's national executive committee in Waterford last night, outlined 10 areas of major public concern his party wished to pursue. He said, however, that it was becoming increasingly difficult to get the Government to focus on these issues while their minds were concentrated on Mr Ahern's own difficulties.
"There is growing evidence already that the Taoiseach and his ministerial colleagues are already preoccupied with the issues surrounding Mr Ahern's finances and taxation and are no longer focusing on the problems of the country.
"Since Mr Ahern's disastrous two-day appearance in the witness box at the Mahon tribunal last September, there have been a whole series of issues seriously mishandled by the Government," said Mr Gilmore.
He said the misjudgements by the Cabinet included the backing given to Noel Dempsey's plan to put tens of thousands of provisional licence-holders off the road over the course of a bank holiday weekend; the Government's total misjudgment of the public mood in its decision to accept massive pay increases of up to €38,000 for the Taoiseach and his ministerial colleagues; and the failure of the Government to respond to the series of crises in cancer services.
"The political reality is that Mr Ahern has been so damaged by his inability to get a tax-clearance certificate from the Revenue Commissioners and his failure to provide convincing answers about the source of the monies received by him in 1993 and 1994, that he is now a Taoiseach without the authority necessary to deal with the problems of the country. He knows and his colleagues know that the only remaining question about his future is how long he can actually cling to power. This is not good for the country.
"As an Opposition party we have no alternative when the Dáil resumes but to pursue what has emerged since the Dáil adjourned on December 19th. We cannot ignore the fact that our head of Government is unable to secure a simple statement from the Revenue that he is tax-compliant.
"Neither can we ignore a sustained attack by Government Ministers on a tribunal of inquiry established by the Oireachtas. The principle of democratic accountability requires that these issues be pursued by Opposition," he said.
Speaking in Cork earlier, Mr Martin said that the Government wanted the tribunal to complete its work and would certainly not be doing anything to undermine it in any way.
Asked if he felt that the Mahon tribunal had been unfair to the Taoiseach, as Mr Ahern himself had suggested, Mr Martin shied away from criticising the tribunal but said that the Opposition parties were using material from it to attack Mr Ahern.
"Our remarks and our views are very much on the assault on the Taoiseach by his political opponents, which have been very consistent since the date the election closed and the result obviously wasn't to the liking of our political opponents," he said.