The former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, has said there is no evidence that he "ever made a telephone call or wrote a letter" to National Irish Bank to have debts written off for Fianna Fail TD Mr John Ellis.
Mr Reynolds last night told The Irish Times that, following a conversation with Mr Ellis yesterday, the Sligo-Leitrim TD "now accepts there is no evidence" to substantiate the claim that the former Taoiseach made representations to NIB on his behalf.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Ellis said that in October 1989 - when he owed £236,540 to NIB - Mr Reynolds "was informing the bank of my dire circumstances and in effect pleaded for leniency for me". Mr Ellis could not be contacted for comment last night.
Mr Reynolds, minister for finance at the time of the write-off, said he has also asked the Department of Finance to examine files to see if any record exists of such a representation to NIB.
Meanwhile, the Government has rejected Fine Gael's claims that a member of the current Cabinet made representations to any financial institution to have debts written off for the Fianna Fail TD.
Following a request from the Taoiseach, the Government Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, contacted all 15 members of the Cabinet to ascertain whether they had made any representations on behalf of Mr Ellis.
Each Cabinet member indicated that he or she had made no representations. Mr Brennan said last night that as far as the Government was concerned, "that was the end of the matter".
The Fine Gael spokesman on finance, Mr Michael Noonan, had indicated he believed that a current Minister had made representations to NIB on behalf of Mr Ellis. A Government spokesman last night accused Mr Noonan of making "wild allegations".
Last night, Mr Noonan questioned "the reliance on the apparent absence of written record of political representations in NIB as grounds for dismissing allegations out of hand". He asked "whether attempts had been made to check what verbal or direct personal contacts were made with the key individuals in the bank at that time".
Following the failure of his meat business in the mid-1980s, Mr Ellis had debts of approximately £500,000. Bankruptcy proceedings were initiated by NIB against him in late 1989. However, in January 1990, Mr Ellis had his £263,540 debt at the bank settled for £20,000.
Fine Gael has also questioned the suitability of Mr Ellis's role as chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said Mr Ellis's position was "questionable" given that the committee "deals with the area in which he was engaged in a failed business".
It was still unclear last night whether the NIB write-off would come within the terms of reference of the Moriarty tribunal. Legal representatives for Mr Ellis have given the tribunal a statement on the NIB write-off.