TWO Labour Ministers, Mr Ruairi Quinn and Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, were forced to apologise to the Dail yesterday for invitations issued on semi official Government notepaper. The invitations were to a £100 a plate lunch to "gain access" to the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn.
The invitations, promising "a rare opportunity" to question Mr Quinn "in a semi formal environment" prior to the publication of Finance Bill, were sent out by Minister of State at the Tanaiste's Office, Ms Fitzgerald. The proceeds will benefit the about Party in her Dublin South constituency.
But the Opposition parties are now challenging the content of the letter, rather than the note paper on which it was written.
Their spokesmen, Mr Charlie McCreevy of Fianna Fail and Mr Robert Molloy of the Progressive Democrats, last night questioned ethics of "selling private briefings to selected business people - to benefit her own constituency organisation".
The controversy, which is causing acute embarrassment to Ms Fitzgerald - the Minister of State who pioneered and steered the Ethics in Public Office Act through the Oireachtas - was first raised by Mr McCreevy and Mr Molloy on the Order of Business in the Dail yesterday.
Mr Molloy asked if it was considered "morally and ethically acceptable" that a select few, on payment of £100 to the Labour Party, could have a briefing from Mr Quinn and Ms Fitzgerald.
After further exchanges Mr Quinn interjected to apologise to the Dail, saying: "That letter should not have gone out on official Government notepaper. I apologise to all parties in the House. It will not happen again. I accept responsibility for it".
Later in the day Ms Fitzgerald apologised to the Dail "for any impression that may have been created that this was an official, as against a Labour Party, function".
These invitations, she said, were issued on the normal note paper she used for constituency purposes, which gave the address of her Dail office in Government Buildings. "They were not issued on official Office of the Tanaiste or other departmental notepaper", she added.
The spokeswoman for Ms Fitzgerald confirmed last night that half of the 700 invitations to the lunch in the Sylvan suite in Jurys Hotel, Dublin, on March 28th had already been issued. The remaining invitations would be sent out on Labour Party notepaper.
In the letter, dated last Wednesday, Ms Fitzgerald says that the Minister for Finance is currently finalising the Finance Bill, 1996. "He has already published a preliminary outline of his plans for the legislation, which gives effect to the Government's financial plan for the coming year. This legislation is of major interest and importance to key sectors in our economy", she adds.
The invitation for the £100 fund raising Labour lunch is extended "in recognition of this". The occasion, the Minister states, "provides a rare opportunity to gain access to the Minister in a semi formal environment".
Although the letter is not written on official Office of the Tanaiste notepaper, it does bear the harp emblem of the Tanaiste's office with "Eithne Fitzgerald TD, Minister of State, Office of the Tanaiste" underneath.
Recipients of the letter are invited to contact Mr Deiric O'Broin in Ms Fitzgerald's office. He is personal secretary on Ms Fitzgerald's political staff.
A spokesman for Mr Quinn said last night that he had known the text of the letter but assumed that it would be sent out on Labour Party notepaper. Hue added that the day of the lunch was "the target date" for publication of the Finance Bill.
