Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny yesterday insisted nobody in the party had his permission to launch a smear campaign against Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Mr Kenny rejected suggestions that Fine Gael was "backing off" because an attempted smear campaign was rebounding adversely on his party.
He said: "I have no interest in Bertie Ahern's personal life or his personal finances. I am not interested in dirty politics."
Speaking during a tour of the Donegal South West constituency, Mr Kenny said if a Fine Gael figure had contacted newspapers with allegations about the Taoiseach it was without his approval.
"If a Fine Gael source was in touch with the papers, and I would hope they were not, it was done without my imprimatur or the imprimatur of the Fine Gael front bench. We have no interest in a dirty tricks campaign . . . As party leader I have no interest in dirty tricks."
Mr Ahern has denied an allegation published in newspapers at the weekend that he took cash to Manchester in a suitcase in 1994.
"Whatever money I took to Manchester was to get me an overnight in Manchester and to pay my ticket, when I didn't get it for nothing, to see Manchester United play," he has said.
Mr Kenny said the "allegations were with the planning tribunal seven years ago and it is for the tribunal to do with them as it wills".
Asked if an investigation into the source of an attempted smear campaign would be conducted, he said: "Have I a reason to carry out an investigation?"
Minister for Health Mary Harney appealed to Fine Gael yesterday not to use the general election campaign to smear the Taoiseach and others in an underhand way, saying to do so debased politics. "I hope we're not going to see that kind of politics. The people don't want it. It debases political life in Ireland if we're going to resort to smears and innuendo. Let's concentrate on the issues, that's what the people want us to do.
"I certainly hope - and I would appeal to Fine Gael - not to continue with efforts to smear people in a very unfair and underhand fashion."
Reports in two Sunday newspapers said a former driver of Mr Ahern, retired garda Martin Fallon, had in 2000 told Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny of witnessing such an event.
Mr Higgins subsequently reported what he had been told to the Mahon (formerly Flood) tribunal. The former garda was a relief driver for Mr Ahern in the early 1990s and subsequently, in 1996-1997, for Mr Higgins.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin claimed the newspaper reports were timed to undermine and smear Mr Ahern in advance of the general election.
He claimed any smear campaign could rebound on the Opposition. "I can see why the Opposition might want to take him down and do everything they possibly can to undermine him. I suspect it may have the opposite impact."