An extraordinary's day evidence by a Government Minister has left several of his Cabinet colleagues with serious questions to answer on their role in the appointment of a tainted Ray Burke to the Cabinet in 1997.
Mr Dermot Ahern, today the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, was given the job of checking out the rumours about Mr Burke by Mr Bertie Ahern in June 1997, just days before the Cabinet was due to be formed.
Mr Ahern travelled to London to meet Mr Joseph Murphy jnr, whose name had come up repeatedly in relation to the rumours. He came back with no evidence of illegal payments and Mr Burke was duly appointed minister for foreign affairs.
Yet it seems clear from yesterday's evidence that both the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste knew more about Mr Burke than they have revealed publicly before.
Mr Ahern said the Taoiseach told him he had been informed by Ms Mary Harney that someone in the Murphy group - not Mr James Gogarty - had told her that £60,000 had been given to Mr Burke in exchange for planning permission on the Murphy lands, and that this had been delivered. The source of this information was Mr Gay Grehan, a Murphy group director.
Since Mr Grehan's wife has stood as a candidate for the PDs, it is to be assumed the Tanaiste would regard the information as reliable.
But how does Ms Harney square this with her Dail statement to in June 1998, when she said: "If what is now known in relation to payment to Mr Burke was known to me last June, I would not have been willing to participate in Government with him"? The Tanaiste is expected to be called as a witness to the tribunal in coming days.
It was clear from yesterday's evidence Ms Harney was aware of Mr Dermot Ahern's mission in London, even though his meeting with Mr Murphy was supposed to be secret.
A week after Mr Dermot Ahern met Mr Murphy, and several days after Mr Burke was made a minister, there was a second meeting between the two men. At this, Mr Murphy relayed a series of sensational allegations he says Mr Michael Bailey made to him, but these were not passed on to the Taoiseach until much later.
According to Mr Murphy, Mr Bailey claimed to have had a three-hour meeting with the Taoiseach and Mr Burke about the allegations Mr Burke was facing. Mr Bailey also suggested that he and Mr Murphy cough up £100,000 to buy Mr Gogarty's silence, it was also claimed. And Mr Bailey is alleged to have said he paid money to Mr Burke on more than one occasion, and that he also made payments to two other Fianna Fail politicians.
The Taoiseach also denied having had a meeting with Mr Bailey - "he immediately said it didn't happen", Mr Dermot Ahern said yesterday. Mr Burke also denies such a meeting took place.
During their first meeting, Mr Dermot Ahern says he put three questions to Mr Murphy. Did he or his father participate in any meeting attended by Mr Burke and Mr Bailey at which a large sum of money was handed over to Mr Burke? Was any undertaking given by Mr Burke in relation to the Murphy lands in north Dublin? And had any meeting taken place between him or a company representative with Mr Burke?
Mr Murphy's version of the questions posed is slightly different, but both men agree he answered No in each case.
According to Mr Ahern, Mr Murphy was agitated during the meeting, and brought with him a huge file with Mr Gogarty's name on it. He claimed Mr Gogarty was "pulling the wool" over the company, that he was blackmailing it and that he was "off the wall". There was "no satisfying" the man's desire for more money, Mr Murphy claimed.
Mr Ahern made notes of the meeting while waiting for his flight in Heathrow and made a detailed statement to the tribunal in March.
At both meetings, Mr Murphy said JMSE had not paid money to Mr Burke, the witness said. At no stage did Mr Murphy say Mr Gogarty had made the payment to Mr Burke on his own, or that he was engaged in a "frolic" of his own, he added.
JMSE's lawyers have alleged that Mr Gogarty paid off Mr Burke independently, and used the term "frolic" to explain his actions.
Mr Dermot Ahern should have been attending the Cabinet meeting dominated by the Sheedy affair as the morning wore on. Instead, he endured a probing cross-examination by Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for the Murphy group, who revealed Mr Murphy's rather different recollection of his two meetings with Mr Ahern.
Mr Cooney said Mr Dermot Ahern rang Mr Murphy on September 10th, 1997, which happens to be the day Mr Burke was making a statement to the Dail. He claimed the Minister was looking for information on political donations by JMSE to other parties which would make good "ammunition" to fire in the Dail.
Mr Ahern said he had no recollection of the call, although Mr Cooney said he would be given telephone logs to prove it took place. During their conversation, Mr Murphy explained JMSE had found evidence of two payments of £20,000 and £10,000, matching the sum paid to Mr Burke, Mr Cooney asserted. Mr Ahern rejected this emphatically, and said he was never given any details of payments by Mr Murphy or a company representative.
Mr Murphy's account alleged Mr Dermot Ahern told him that the PDs had been "obliterated". The outgoing Fine Gael minister for justice, Ms Nora Owen, was going to give Mr Gogarty immunity against prosecution as a "parting shot" at Fianna Fail, Mr Ahern is alleged to have said. "He described her as the most dangerous politician of them all," Mr Cooney said.
Mr Ahern laughed and denied the allegation, "because I wouldn't regard her as the most dangerous politician of them all."